An Art Therapy Project:
Prelude
As I’ve written elsewhere, 2022 was a difficult year. The problems with my back had increased over the Christmas period (of 2021) and the New Year was a stressful sequence of medical appointments, tests and scans, the diagnosis (multiple compression fractures in my spine from severe osteoporosis) and treatment (bone infusions).
I can’t praise highly enough the NHS medics and the medical support staff that I met – and the system in NHS-Leeds which provided me with physiotherapy, occupational therapy and the support of a clinical psychologist. But unexpectedly, I couldn’t boost their contributions (and further increase my mood) with my own go-to technique – with the camera – because somehow, it failed to work its magic.
Fortunately, more help was at hand – from a slightly different direction!
'Mood'
An abstract diptych from this project
I belong to a small, all-women, UK-based online community, called ‘Zoom In’, run by Rachel Wright and largely made up of photographers who’ve done courses with her, either online or in real life. And, in one of the meetings (in May 2022) Rachel made a chance remark which led me into the wonderful world of cyanotype printing.
You can see a gallery of my cyanotype prints HERE …
Then, eight months later (in January 2023), the artist-filmmaker, Jean Hogg joined the group, presenting a series of images which has inspired this multi-media 'Art Therapy Project'.