Using Textile Art Practices as a Place of Knowing and Finding Ground: A Musing on the Role of Personal Artmaking and the Expressive Therapies Continuum (Utiliser les pratiques d’art textile comme espace de savoir et d’ancrage : réflexion sur le rôle de la création artistique personnelle et du Continuum des thérapies expressives)

Abstract

Through the lens of a practicing artist/art therapist, this paper examines the role textile art practices have had on their personal artmaking and emotional wellness by posing the question: Why am I drawn to engaging in textile art practices? It also acknowledges how artmaking can be used as a means of self-education, professional value, and artistic authenticity for art therapists. Preliminary research on textiles in art therapy highlights the hierarchical framing of art materials where a connection to “craft” is intimately linked to femininity. The qualitative research used art-based research methodology (ABR) and reflected on five collections of textile artwork. The expressive therapies continuum (ETC) framework was used to derive observations and insights regarding the therapeutic value of each collection. Sensory, Kinesthetic, and Perceptual dimensions were identified, and it was observed that textile artmaking supported self-regulation and tactile processing by cultivating actions of repetitive and rhythmic movement. The paper calls attention to the active use of artmaking for art therapists as a source of self-care and offers insight to the value of adding textile materials to their professional toolbox. Future research that broadens the use of textiles and considers the sociocultural-historical implications of the role of materials is proposed.

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