That long, transparent thing with its metamorphic container manages to astonish, every time, again. A squeeze of the trigger producing a bond. The cartridge, unwilling, is forced toward an unknown fate. Most often, it dances its drunken sway, spills out, loses form, builds slowly, then trickles and flows beyond control. Within minutes, it steams with gleaming vapors, slides from here to there and back again, grips everything and releases nothing. Or else, lets go all at once,

This page features short videos that highlight key points in studio thinking for therapy and education. Since these topics often come up together, I decided to create brief videos and gather them here in this library. Feel free to use and share these videos; they may also be helpful for teaching and supervision. Save this page link for future reference, as more videos are planned to be added here.     Nona Orbach nonaorbach@gmail.com

An entry hole and an exit hole.  Wounded fabric.  A bleeding path of trailing thread, torn, or lost along the way.  Hole after hole.  The needle rises and falls, at times brushing close to the face, at times far from it. Sometimes it vanishes behind a screen, and you can only guess from where it will return. A practiced hand finds, through the fabric’s dense weave, the next stopping point. The other hand, less skilled, is startled by the sharp flicker of pain.   Stitch upon s

What do you feel, or think, when you look at the stars? In many cultures, the star symbolizes a particular destiny or an individual calling. In dreams and fairy tales, it often represents what makes a person unique. Just as travelers, pilgrims, and sailors have always found their way by reading the night sky, we can imagine a star guiding our own journey, along a path no one has ever walked, meant only for us. Stars are always there, but only visible in the darkness. Perhaps

Judith  Siano, a prominent art therapist living and working in Israel, talks with philosophers and art therapists, some of whom are no longer with us, to find meaning in life amid war.  Tal  Siano assisted in reviving and editing her guests.   Edith Kramer Judith Rubin and Judith Siano Judith Siano: judithsiano@gmail.com Judith Siano - The Box Opens

رحلة بين البيت والغرفة العلاجيّة معالجة بالفنون التّشكيليّة، ومرشدة للمعالجين بالفنون، زوجة وشريكة، وأمّ لثلاثة أطفال. أتنقّل بين فضاءات الحياة والعلاج كما أتنقّل بين الألوان والخطوط؛ ففي كل لقاء أكتشف تداخُل الأدوار بين الأم والمعالجة، بين الإصغاء الذي يمنح الأمان، والخيال الذي يفتح أفقًا جديدًا للفهم. أؤمن أنّ الفنّ ليس ترفًا جماليًّا، بل وسيلة للبقاء، ومساحة آمنة للتّعبير عمّا يتجاوز الّلغة. الفن، في جوهره، لغة حوارٍ صامتة بين الإنسان وذاته، تُتيح للطّفل وللرّاشد معًا أن ي

Medium Characteristics Oil paint is made of color pigments mixed with linseed oil. The paint comes in tubes in rich shades that blend organically and sensually. It can be diluted with more linseed oil and turpentine and used on fabric, wood, and paper surfaces. The paint can be used in transparent or thick, opaque layers, or applied directly from the tube to create a three-dimensional effect. Oil paint has a characteristic odor from its diluents, the classic scent of the pai

“We are all three, no four, generations, in the helping professions, my grandmother was a nurse, my mother a social worker, and I am a developmental psychologist, no, actually four, as my daughter is a clinical psychologist.” “Oh, how interesting,” people say at dinner parties, smiling, hoping to move on to something more interesting, away from our older people’s obsession with our family trees - as if flinging ourselves into the history that we will soon become. My grandmoth

Ⅰ.  Introduction   In my previous paper, "Sand Drawing Therapy: A New Approach to Art Therapy," I discussed the characteristics and significance of using sand drawing as a form of therapy, as well as the procedures and precautions for its implementation, citing relevant literature. In this paper, I would like to introduce the practice and specific methods of sand drawing therapy through a case study. The therapist (hereafter Th) stands facing the client (hereafter Cl) and is

Medium Characteristics Paper is one of the most useful and common materials in the world. It is made of pulverized cellulose fibers mixed with water and dried in thin layers. Some paper is made of cotton; some has color and adhesives added. Paper comes in rolls or sheets of different thicknesses and sizes. It can be folded, rolled, torn, cut, ground, glued, or used as a surface for different media and pencil works. Malaguzzi Center, Reggio Emilia Therapeutic and Spiritual Si

A Roadmap for Art Educators and Art Therapists Art teachers, art therapists, and artists express themselves, among other ways, in the language of materials, classification of the different media and tools, organizing furniture and shelves, serving as a text with its own intrinsic logic, which influences both body and mind. Every shelf of materials can be perceived as a sentence, every cabinet as a paragraph. They function as an alchemical, metaphorical basis supporting the cre

I was born in Israel in 1974, nine months after the Yom Kippur War. I was five years old when my family moved to a new town. My first memory from there was getting out of the truck that was transporting our belongings and meeting a woman who asked me who we were. I told her enthusiastically that we had come to live here and that we were relatives of my aunt, who already lived there. Her response was: "Oh, another family of Farsi miduna..." *   It was my first encounter with t

«С точки зрения молодости жизнь есть бесконечно долгое будущее, с точки зрения старости — очень короткое прошлое». Артур Шопенгауэр Oh God! May I be alive when I die. Donald. W. Winnicott Что может предложить терапевт пожилым людям, которые идут к финальному этапу своего жизненного путешествия? В этом материале я делюсь своим пониманием сути такой работы, их воспоминаниями и опытом. Всё это стало частью и моей жизненной истории. Я работаю со стариками, с их душой и телом. С т

The five-year-old, from the video below, who is interested in symmetry, found Rodha Kellogg's charts in my studio and used them for her artwork. A short video explaining the phenomenological tool I have been using for decades to understand what creators are doing. It helps me be more accurate in my responses in therapy, as they have the space and permission to be who they are. "The spiritual blueprint of the creator derives from the universal archetypes we have inherited from

On Being a Western Contemporary Ink Painter in Japan   I am a British ink* painter based in Japan and have been working in ink for many years. I studied calligraphy (Shodo), both ancient Chinese scripts and Abstract Calligraphy (Bokusho), for about 9 years, but I realized that however much I loved the Chinese characters themselves, calligraphy was always going to remain ‘other.’ I was not able to use it to express myself fully as it was not my language. My second stint with i

I feel many of us are trying to help each other survive. At some point in my life, I chose to create a family of my own and to place my eyes on beauty. I accepted a deep desire for balance. I chose this over a part of me that was very much in shadow. For decades, I felt tied to a rock. I felt constant discord, loneliness, and anger. I used art to give a voice to my raw emotional world, but I paid a price. My mental health was challenged. I tried to feel better but could not s

What Lies Beyond The Shapes I am absolutely mesmerized by the world of primary shapes. My journey began with a love for painting in...

Art therapists in Israel held a conference in 2024, dedicated to materials.  A lecture, a panel, workshops, and an installation of...

Tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic… A needle taps over and over on a sheet of paper, each stroke piercing it. The action focuses on a specific area,...

Neora Zigler, art teacher Medium Characteristics Acrylic paint is a new painting medium that became commercial in the 1950s. It comes in...