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Patient's Art
2
For more
information, please contact Katherine Rudolph at info@exploringtheword.com.au
or on 03-9729 8819.
See below for
artwork by this patient. Also see
Patient's Art 3 for
further
examples.
PROGRESS
REPORT
MARCH 1,
2006
RECREATION
THERAPY
THERAPIST -
KATHERINE RUDOLPH
PATIENT -
MATTHEW, AN AQUIRED HEAD INJURY PATIENT, AGE 33
INJURY
ACQUIRED 14+ YEARS AGO, MUTE, WITH THE BASIC USE OF HIS LEFT
HAND
EXPLORING THE
WORD IN COLOUR AND SPEECH
JULY, 2004 -
MARCH , 2006
In the
duration of time that I have been working with Matthew, he has been
doing painting, clay modelling, and pastels. He has been
interested and involved especially in the painting, although he did
enjoy working with the Platonic Solids in clay. We made a
pyramid which reminded him of a visit he had made as a child, to
the pyramids in Mexico. Of the five Platonic Solids, he was able to
experience the cube best of all. When I placed two pyramids
base to base, the octahedral form was experienced. The work
helps to develop the centre and to create balance.
His first
attempts with red and yellow are memorable because they so readily
resemble the sun motif in painting. The red and yellow
especially bring the blood circulation to the brain, which is good
for his condition, and helps him awaken to colour.
All of the
colour exercises are designed to stimulate the consciousness of the
individual, through centre-periphery, up-down, right-left,
enhancement in the colour-wheel progression, polarity, and
complementary colours in the warm and cool elements.
Matthew always
had an individual approach and knew what he wanted. He enjoyed
blending the colour and was interested in the appearance of dark
and light. His brush stroke gradually became more steady as
time went on. The "wet-on-wet, or wet-on-damp" approaches
created his best painting; although some work on dry paper and with
pastels gave him the opportunity to have more control.
However he found it difficult to master the technique. It is
hard for him to paint with the board upright.
Matthew has
painted over 300 paintings in the time we have worked
together. He almost never tired. It is his means of
self-expression. The fiery aspect of his character comes
forward in his painting movement. This is healthy for
him. Any particular frustrations or annoyances are painted
into the movement and taken care of.
His joy in
blending colour and his fascination with the various hues has often
been transformed into story form. As he painted, I would
often describe the "colour events" which were occurring. They
were transformed into conversation, and sometimes vowels or
music. Immediately, the innate social life in colours came to
consciousness. This is a way of communicating for Matthew, in
his individual forming process. He is very musical in the
sense that the life of his colours remains a colour representation,
rather than a depiction of the outer world or an imagination.
If it appears to be a landscape, it comes out of the colours.
There is no depiction or illustrative design
present.
I have helped
Matthew to balance his tendency to blend all of the colours
together. The balance of pure rainbow colours to the earth
colours, creates a healthy painting. Although at first, the
colour appears chaotic, it becomes transformed. This "chaos"
is an important happening, without which there would not be the
constant variation which eventually will lead to beauty. When
order is brought to this chaotic appearing colour weaving, in the
approach which I outlined earlier, then beauty is attained.
With beauty comes the furthering of the healing impulse for it
implies a harmony which resolves the dissonance, a steadying of the
focus and an appreciation of art in the social- therapeutic
sense. Matthew had an ever-changing view of
colour.
Spiral forms
going inward have helped to find Matthew. "The centre is in
the middle". Formed representations of earth, water, air, and
fire have also been introduced at times. Animal forms have
been cut out and superimposed on the painted surface.
Sometimes they were removed after having been painted over, and at
other times they were left on the painting as a relief. This
has been done in the attempt to help him see the contours.
Matthew is at home in the colour movement, but his sense of form
has not been developed enough. Such development would allow
him to have more of an overview of the process that he is
in.
I have shown
Matthew illustrated fairy tales, such as " The Queen Bee" by the
brothers Grimm. He seems to " breathe it in" like
nourishment. This kind of stimulation could be
continued, for he seems to understand the story. At some
future time, perhaps he could even consciously paint the mood
behind the story.
Another
approach to form has been penmanship. He likes writing his
name or the names of friends and relatives. Sometimes he has
done this with the paintbrush.
In the last
terms work, an approach has been essayed to paint on a white metal
screen. The colours have been applied in symmetrical dots.
Matthew has made journeys with the paintbrush from one dot to
another. The story dialogue is like "visiting" friends in
distant lands. When "blue" journeys to meet "red", "red"
introduces "mauve" who then sets out to visit the new friend across
the way. A party, a dance or, a circus ensues in the
imagination which I vocalise for him. At a certain point, a
white sheet of paper is placed over the screen and pressed
down. Mark's outer activity is replaced by the question;
"What will it look like?". Then the sheet is removed and the
imprint is seen. It is now at rest. This is a result of the
interweaving of colours, which has just occurred. A few white
spaces are left. In a controlled way they are bridged by
colour which Matthew then observes, or the work is allowed to
dry. Then a" wash" of colour, like a background is applied
over the imprint. This can be done before the imprint is
taken so that there is already a background.
One especially
practical aspect of this technique, which has come into being
through Mark's therapy, has been that a relatively inexpensive
paper can be used. The metal screen is the " field of play"
and the imprint can be set aside to dry. The colour expenditure is
a bit more, however.
The
consciousness gained by Matthew in this approach is apparent. He
always registers surprise and attention, looking at the
imprint. The eye rests and absorbs the colour. In the
previous activity, the lens of the eye was continually focussing
and moving. The paintbrush is “speaking". Afterwards,
the “listening" process can occur, in the sense of letting the
colour work back, in an actively passive manner. The "give
and take" in conversation is experienced.
Matthew has
only spoken to me a few times since I have known him. He has
said, "Hello". But through the making of his CD's ; and the
printing of his greeting cards, Matthew can easily say "Hello" to
the world, and I believe that he is aware of that.
Thus, I would,
of course, recommend more painting for Matthew at a time in the
future when that can be accomplished.
Katherine
Rudolph
Exploring The
Word In Colour and Speech
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