JUMP FOR JOY BOYS

Over at the Artists Trading Club this month's swap is Cookies which I understand as atcs which contain some form of doodling. These 'Jump for Joy Boys' are my effort and I am inordinately pleased to see them as they are the first thing to emerge from my playroom that hasn't involved much cursing and stamping of my feet(as described in previous post). So, managing to make ANYTHING at all was a very sweet relief. I am at such a loss when I can't make things .... I have a reaction almost akin to panic! Really, the whole sweaty palm syndrome! I guess it's because, for me, art has always been so very therapeutic - to be denied that outlet must be utterly dreadful. I read once about a long term prisoner who wasn't allowed access to art materials in his cell and so he had improvised by using his own hair tied to a pencil as a brush and the colour from M&Ms as his paint. That story really made me think about how art can be used to help rehabilitate and to heal in prisons, psychiatric hospitals and hospices and particularly, its use with people who are unable to articulate their pain verbally - children being one example. Sadly, as I understand it, Art Therapy is a dwindling, much less-oft used form of treatment. I would like to see its benefits and importance re-evaluated and its use reinstated. It is a POWERFUL tool which is undervalued.
On a much lighter note (where did all that come from?!) I'm off for a hot date with Sir Tim and the Ranger team on QVC which will no doubt have therapeutic benefits hitherto unimagined!