Music and Art Therapy: The Emotional Impact of Music in Art Making

My most recent project was my Senior Capstone! Involving a thesis paper and art show, the project ​took a deeper look at the mutualistic relationship between music and art making; how, when implemented in tandem, both influence emotional release, stress relief, and consolation in the art therapy setting. Because music allows for an expression of emotions, music of different genres can be used in the art therapy to increase a client's self-expression and ability to expression hidden emotions through art-making. Additionally, different genres of music hold different meanings, express differing visual and emotional themes, and represent different histories. For the project, twelve different genres of music were chosen, with a different piece of art being created for each one based of the genre's history, visual themes, emotional qualities, and overall feeling.

A Book on Personalized Metaphor

Another one of my more recent projects, A Book on Personalized Metaphor, examines the way metaphor exists in the world and how metaphor has become indoctrinated into mainstream language; metaphors are used to better articulate true meaning and emotion. This book reflects upon the physical, social, spiritual, and emotional meaning behind personalized metaphors; the metaphors humans create to make sense of themselves, their emotions, and the world around them. In order to examine personalized metaphor, a personalized metaphor was created: “Silence is deafening when the mind talks loudly” is discussed throughout this book to analyze the physical, social, spiritual, and emotional impact metaphors have. To do this effectively, art pieces were created for each chapter to not only visually capture the metaphor as it applies to each section but to demonstrate how metaphor aids in the cognition of language as well as the interpretation of art and creative ventures. In all, this book demonstrates the connection of art and metaphor as well as how it applies to therapy and the healing process; personalized metaphor becomes the basis of healing in Art Therapy.
Picture
A Book on Personalized Metaphor Book Cover; Ink Pen and Marker on Paper, 9x11". Photograph.