Narratives of therapeutic art-making in the context of marital breakdown: older women reflect on a significant mid-life experience

This paper explores the narratives of three women aged 65–72 years. They reflected on an episode of therapeutic art-making in midlife, which addressed depression associated with marital crisis and breakdown. The narrative analysis focused upon on the ways in which participants narrated the events leading up to their participation in therapeutic art-making; the aspects of therapeutic art-making that continued to be given significance; the characters given primacy in the stories they told about their journey through therapy and marital breakdown; meanings, symbolic and otherwise, that participants ascribed to their artwork made during this turning point in their lives; and aspects of the narratives that conveyed present-day identities and artistic endeavors. The narratives revealed the complexity of the journey through marital breakdown and depression into health, and showed that therapeutic art-making could best be understood, not as a stand-alone experience, but as given meaning within the context of wider personal and social resources. Participants looked back on therapeutic art-making that occurred two decades earlier and still described this as a significant turning point in their personal development. Art as an adjunct to counselling/therapy was not only symbolically self-expressive but provided opportunity for decision-making, agency and a reformulated self-image.     

Interpretive Artists: A Qualitative Exploration of the Creative Process of Actors

Actors, dancers, and musicians generally are referred to as artists, but many do not originate the work they perform; rather, they interpret the work of originating artists. Past models of the creative process were based on originating artists. The purpose of this study was to explore the creative process of interpretive artists, specifically actors. To further characterize the creative process of actors, this study additionally investigated (a) the social influences that undermined or enhanced an actor's creativity, (b) the tension that occurs between an actor's personal and character identities, and (c) the need for spontaneity in the creative process of actors. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 3 actors. Content analysis revealed three stages of the creative process for actors: a general preparation period, rehearsal, and performance. This model was compared with a previous model of the creative process based on originating artists. Social influences seen as enhancing creativity were clear direction, trust, freedom, respect, challenge, collaboration, and unity with the audience. Undermining social influences included reward, poor direction, evaluation, distrust, peers who stopped listening, and feeling interchangeable. The tension between an actor's personal and character identities was characterized by catharsis and difficulty in delineating boundaries. The need for spontaneity was seen as crucial in the actor's creative process. It is suggested that the actor's creative process is more improvisational, characterized by process and product co-occurring, real-time social influences, tension between personal and performing identities, and the need for spontaneity.     

Childhood Precursors of Women's Artistic Eminence

ABSTRACT The paper describes the traits and life experiences that appear to have influenced the success of 21 eminent women in the visual arts. Key familial, school and social childhood conditions provided support and encouragement during the childhoods of women who became outstanding artists. As children, artists were creative, versatile, vital, energetic, sensitive, and found joy in their work. Corroborating previous findings, early achievement predicted later accomplishments. As in the lives of eminent authors, musicians, philosophers, and other illustrious groups, early intensive concentration in one's field of accomplishment, often to the near exclusion of other activities, is associated with high levels of accomplishment.     

Turning to art as a positive way of living with cancer: A qualitative study of personal motives and contextual influences

Why do some women turn to creative art-making after a diagnosis of cancer? Eleven women provided qualitative accounts that were analysed following guidelines for interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Some described taking up artistic leisure activities initially in order to manage emotional distress. Others emphasized their need for positive well-being, taking up art to experience achievement and satisfaction, to regain a positive identity, and to normalize family dynamics in the context of living with cancer. Participants’ turn to art-making was facilitated by biographical and contextual factors, including pre-existing craft skills, long-standing personal values and coping philosophies, family role models for managing adversity, and the supportive encouragement of family and friends. Other research has acknowledged that positive lifestyle change and posttraumatic growth can occur after a cancer diagnosis, and this study reveals a multi-faceted process. The findings suggest a need for further research into the experiences that facilitate positive lifestyle change and subjective well-being among people who are living with cancer.     

Analogical modification in the creation of contemporary art

The goal of this study was to propose a framework to describe the analogical process in the context of creation. We conducted retrospective interviews with two contemporary artists in their forties using portfolios of their past works so that they could recall their creation processes in detail. We found that the artists often use analogical modification to produce new series of artwork. Analogical modification is a cognitive process used to generate a new target, in the context of creation, by changing values of a source to make differences during analogical mapping. We found three types of analogical modification, namely, subject modification, structure modification, and concept modification. Creative vision, which is formed through many years of creative activity and consists of long-term intentions or goals for creation, plays an important role in guiding the use of analogical modification. The process of artistic creation can be better understood using the framework of the interaction between activities in different time spans, such as analogical modification and creative vision.     

The Creative Space and a Place for Dance

How does a dancer become a world renowned leader of an experimental creative dance space? The influences leading to the development of the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company are many and include historical events, family background, mentors, and private intangible states of being. Creative collaboration, a prized modus operandi, honors working with multidiscipline artists. The creative process, with all its ambiguities and conundrums, is perceived as ever-evolving. The physical creative space reflects the times we live in as well as the growth and development of the artist.     

The Creative Identity: Creative Behavior From The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective

This paper outlines a framework for understanding the motivation of certain creative behaviors from the perspective of symbolic interactionism. The fundamental tenets of symbolic interactionism are described, followed by a discussion of the mechanics of symbolic interactionist-based role-identity theory, and how the theory can be applied to the motivation of creative behavior. The paper also addresses directions for practical application and future research in this area.     

Influential Factors in Artist's Lives and Themes in Their Artwork

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relations among influential factors in artists' lives, the process of creativity, and themes in the resulting artwork. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. In Phase I of the research, 6 contemporary artists identified themes, influences, feelings, thoughts, and representations about 5 pieces of their own art. They also completed a 50-item survey about influential factors. Two judges also were asked to identify themes, influences, feelings, thoughts, and representations in Phase 2 of the research. The judges relied on 30 slides depicting the work of the 6 artists. The same 50-item survey concerning influential factors was completed by each of the judges while examining the slides a 2nd time. Hypothesis 1, which predicted that artists would articulate the events, experiences, and memories that have influenced their lives, was supported. Hypothesis 2, which predicted that artists would be aware of the relations between influential factors in their lives and specific themes, images, expressions, and representations in their paintings, also was supported. Hypothesis 3, which predicted that potentially influential factors would be communicated in the themes, images, expressions, and representations in artists' paintings, and that objective viewers can identify them, was supported partially. The judges responded similarly to at least 2 of the 5 pieces of art for each participant. Hypothesis 4, which predicted that influential themes would be similar across all participants ' paintings, also was supported partially. One hundred percent agreement was found for the strongest influences (e.g., loss and culture) when the men and the women were evaluated separately.     

Coconstructing Mother–Infant Distress: The Microsynchrony of Maternal Impingement and Infant Avoidance in the Face-to-Face Encounter

This article takes a new look at the self-experience of creative artists. A five-step model of the creative process is put forth: preparation, inspiration, realization, completion, and objectification. The vicissitudes the creative self undergoes in each step are described, as well as the selfobject experiences needed to sustain the self through each phase. Of particular interest in this regard are the roles of the “muse” and of the artistic community. The article then describes three pathologies that the creative self is particularly prone to: addictions, vertical splits, and depression/isolation. The article concludes with a case example of a female patient who brought her paintings and stories into therapy.     

Suicide survivors: psychotherapeutic implications of egocide.

Interviews with seven of ten known survivors of jumps from the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge revealed that all of them experienced transcendence and spiritual rebirth phenomena. The psychotherapeutic implications of these findings lie in helping depressed and suicidal individuals confront death in a symbolic and meaningful way. The issue is one of "egocide" (symbolic suicide) and aiding individuals in the rebirth process. In this way actual suicides can be prevented. When individuals experience partial "deaths" (like loss, failure, rejection, depression, suicidal states, or negative parts of their egos), there is opportunity for "rebirth" (positive transformation, creative change, growth, and significant spiritual reawakening). The therapeutic task is to help individuals differentiate between "ego death" and total death and to discover through the creative process of psychotherapy that overt suicide need not be a solution.     

Research paper

In this age of technological change and innovation which has had a major impact upon schools, together with the continuing demands of an assessment driven curriculum, are schools providing opportunities which will develop and enhance children's creative, aesthetic and spiritual experiences? It is the contention of this paper that learning through the medium of creative dance can provide an opportunity which can deepen children's spiritual awareness and provide a context for the development of a kinaesthetic intelligence which enables children to embody, and give expression to, abstract ideas and concepts. In the discussion of the initial findings from a small scale research project carried out with Y3 children, we shall see that although the children's developing spirituality is very much interconnected with their everyday lives and preoccupations, the dance work enabled them to connect with an abstract theme in a concrete way, and inspired them to create a symbolic interpretation of the Creation story.     

Mental and perceptual feedback in the development of creative flow

Sketching is considered by artists and designers to be a vital tool in the creative process. However, research shows that externalisation during the creative process (i.e., sketching) is not necessary to create effectively. This study examines whether sketching may play a more important role in the subjective experience of creativity by facilitating the deeply focused, optimal state of consciousness termed ‘flow’ (being ‘in the zone’). The study additionally explored whether sketching affects flow by easing cognitive load or by providing a clearer sense of self-feedback. Participants carried out the creative mental synthesis task (combining sets of simple shapes into creative drawings), experimentally simulating the visual creative process. Ideas were generated either mentally before committing to a final drawing, or with external perceptual support through sketching, and cognitive load was varied by using either three- or five-shape sets. The sketching condition resulted in greater experience of flow and lower perceived task difficulty. However, cognitive load did not affect flow and there was no interaction between load and sketching conditions. These findings are the first to empirically demonstrate that sketching increases flow experience, and that this is not dependent on an associated reduction in overall working memory load.     

The Creation Process of Brazilian Musicians

This study investigated the creative process of well‐known musicians in Brasília, Brazil and the conditions that facilitated the development of their creative abilities. A sample of 14 professional musicians (11 composers and 3 performers) participated in semi‐structured interviews to discuss the following topics: musical formation, dedicating time to music, working conditions, creativity in music, the creative process, and the importance of music in their lives. The results indicated that the majority of the musicians view creativity as a complex process supported by many factors, especially the environment. Four stages of the creative process were described by these musicians: process triggering, preparation, product elaboration, and product validation.     

Alexithymia and Affect Intensity of Fine Artists

Research on creative artists has examined mainly their personality traits or cognitive abilities. However, it seems important to explore also their emotional traits to complete the profile. This study examines two emotional characteristics: alexithymia and affect intensity. Even if most research suggests that artists are less alexithymic and experience more intensively their emotions, Botella, M., Zenasni, F., and Lubart, T. (Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 5 , 251, 2011) observed that art students were as alexithymic as psychology students and more alexithymic than a normative population. The aim of this study was to examine these issues with artists and non‐artists and to compare artists to art students. Results indicate that artists are less alexithymic and present higher affect intensity than non‐artists. Moreover, results show that art students present more difficulties processing their emotions than artists.     

The span of creativity among long‐lived historical artists

Three studies examined the relationship between age and creativity in terms of when the masterpieces of major historical artists were produced and when their total creative efforts declined. In Study 1, the lifelong output of 21 long‐lived painters (age = 79+) was tallied; in Study 2, the productivity of a new set of 24 long‐lived male and female artists was compared; and in Study 3, the ages at which masterpieces were produced by several sets of up to 100 relatively short‐ and long‐lived artists were examined. Masterpieces were done in the artists’ 40s and 50s, which is later than the often‐cited 30s. Productivity did not decline until the 50s or 60s, which is later than the 40s reported for musicians and writers. The results were discussed in terms of gender differences, group and individual analyses, interdisciplinary research relating psychology to the humanities, the importance of including old and very old subjects in studies of creative development, and an optimistic view of aging and cognition. The findings suggest that creativity in other kinds of artists, and nonartists in general, may be maximized later and longer than previously believed.     

Chaos,creativity, and counseling: Aspects of a Transtheoretical model of the counseling process

Counselors ask their clients to become creative in their personal lives and within their counseling process. The process of counseling is a creative process. Growth is necessary for effective improvement in the counseling process. This paper will examine creativity from the point of view of the affective experience of the creator, and the relationship of this experience to the client in counseling.

The position here is that the process of counseling is both a creative process and one that involves tensions and turbulence. Based on a model of nonlinear dynamics, and ideas about the creative process, this study draws a dynamical fractal movie of the counseling process in which the counselor serves as an attractor for the construction of opposites in the client behavior that allow for growth and the construction of a new state of psychosocial events.     

The Effect of Intrinsic Motivation on the Affect and Evaluation of the Creative Process Among Fine Arts Students

The main aim of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the effect of intrinsic motivation on affect, subjective evaluation, and the creative process of young artists. Relations between motivation, affect, and evaluation were treated as a dynamic process and measured several times. The unique contribution of this study is that it concerned not only the effect of intrinsic motivation on the final result of creativity, but also changes in subjective evaluation and affect of the intermediate results at consecutive stages of the creative process. Thirty-six female fine arts students participated in the experiment. The creative task (collage making) was sampled on 3 occasions: after 5 min, 10 min, and at the end of the activity. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations were induced by 2 types of instruction. The creative products were assessed by 13 judges in accordance with the consensual assessment technique. Intrinsically motivated art students experienced significantly higher levels of positive affect in the creative process and evaluated their performance significantly higher than extrinsically motivated students. The distribution of collage creativity scores suggests that there may be a complex effect of motivation on creativity among fine arts students. The study sheds new light on the effect of intrinsic motivation on evaluation, affect and product creativity.     

How Artists Create: An Empirical Study of MFA Painting Students

This paper reports on an interview study with MFA students in two different full‐time MFA degree programs in painting. The interviews were conducted as part of two ethnographic studies, each one academic year in length, of art and design schools at two U.S. universities. The goal was to explore the extended process whereby MFA student artists, in the second and final year of their degree program, create the works to be displayed in their public graduation exhibition. Using a grounded theory approach, an emergent theory was developed from the interviews, with additional information provided by studio observations and analyses of the graduation exhibitions and the accompanying written theses. This emergent theory describes the artistic creative process to be wandering, unpredictable, non‐linear, and embedded in the physical act of generating work. There is no evidence that either moments of insight, or the attempt to be original, play a role in their creative process. This emergent theory is compared with theories of the creative process by creativity researchers, and with theories of the design process proposed by design studies researchers.