Reader Story: Art Therapy, Painting, Osteoarthritis, Anemia, & Collages!

Angela Harrison originally left these comments on the site, but I thought they deserved to be shared and thusly their own post. There’s a few comments, but I thought they were very moving. Enjoy, and thank you Angela for sharing your story with us.

Comment About Painting, Art Therapy, & Osteoarthritis

Today I happened to find out more about Art Therapy and it really fascinates me. I have been interested in Art most of all my Life, but since contracting Osteo Arthritis in 2000, Painting has become one of the essential remedies in counteracting PAIN! Let me tell you just what happened.

I woke up one day, really stiff, could hardly get out of bed, then progressively it worsened, and I was almost bedridden, and confined to sitting in a chair. From being very agile, and a “busy bee” in life, I was reduced to becoming an Ice Block overnight!. I became cold too, it was frightening indeed!

Well, after visiting my GP, and getting some X Rays taken, I was beginning to recognize that “Is this a figment of my imagination”, OR “Is this a physical disease!” I was wrong. A few days after the results came back to my doctor, I was informed that this illness was a condition, early stages of Osteo Arthritis.

One evening, at about eight pm, I was feeling very cold and numb, I turned and gazed at a portrait photo of my father, playing Golf. He always used to say that Golf was a game of Wit, and it made him keep “The Ball rolling”, in other words “It kept him moving”. Something in myself felt as though an area had “Shut Down”. I had been through alot of shock and tension from a past experience, and was beginning to think that a lump of tension was blocking in my mind, and thus my joints started to seize up.

Strange as it may seem, after gazing into my father`s eyes, I remembered a Children`s Story I had written some years ago, called The Snow Child, so I dragged it out of a suitcase, and started to sketch out some scenes, with Eskimo`s, sledges, husky dogs and a mother and baby covered in fur, and even started plaiting some wool. I became focused on an idea, and as I started to reread the original essay, I noticed a change in my thinking, then a slight change in my movements, even my nose began to run, Movement!!!

The story helped me focus off the stiffness, and by applying myself through sketching, I expressed some images on paper. It was like thawing out some frozen bit of fear in the mind.And that was a block, Fear. Something I had not let go of in my system.So I now am practicing art therapy at home when this stiffness occurs. Art is fun, and really Therapeutic!  – ASH

2nd Comment About Art Therapy, Anemia, & Collages

Since that terrible experience in 2000, I have resurrected six of the children`s stories I wrote in 1986, and when I was fatigued in 2004, one day I went out walking {Middle of winter}, and gathered some leaves, straw, sticks, and bits and pieces, into a plastic bag, and created a collage on a Cork board, An African Kraal. Then I painted a woodpile and fire with cinders, Alloes,Wooden Huts,painted an old Madala {African Chief} and some women carrying pots on their heads, a trough, and an African dog yapping.

From this collage, I started to illustrate the children`s book I wrote in 1984. By going out and forraging for natural objects, and focusing onto the illustrations, after nine months of intense work, I began to feel better.

I know that I drew expression from past images in mind, but it cleared alot of fatigue. Also those images that were resurrected were colourful and youthful, so the experience created some energy. However, a few years later I needed treatment for anemia, and am alot better again. The art therapy really has and does help aid recovery!!! The best therapy on Earth! That is all for now, am working on a new book called The Platypus`s Dance. Need some images, need some images!!!!! Bye for Now  -ASH