In the mid-1990’s, I spoke with several cognitive and neuropsychologists. In these paintings she welcomes aging with acceptance, compassion, and joy. Through the negligee you can see sagging breasts, sun spots, wrinkles, and you can also see a twinkle in her eye as she gleefully dances away from her husband’s outstretched hand. One painting that comes to mind is an image of her, a senior woman, in a pink see-through negligee. Later, she approaches allegedly taboo subjects with a great amount of humor. Then her art began to take on global topics such as the Jonestown mass murder, coupled a deep awareness and concern for mankind. At first, her art is despairing and very personal. Her drawings chronicle her growth and awakening. Her depression never returned, and thanks to the tireless work of journalist Don Lambert, she exhibited her artwork at the Smithsonian Museum as well as a multitude of galleries and other museums. After six months of painting autobiographically daily, she was relieved of her lifelong experience of depression. As a certified expressive arts therapist, I would add that for this process, a student or client is to write, draw, paint, act, sing, or say everything that crosses your mind without editing, no matter how seemingly insignificant.īy focusing on sorrow and loss in her drawings, Elizabeth created paintings that were authentic, painful, and powerful.
#What is self portraiture free
Ludwig describes free association and/or stream of consciousness writing in the following manner, “write down, without any falsification or hypocrisy, everything that comes into your head” (Wikipedia, Feb 12, 2015). This first drawing by Elizabeth is reminiscent of the painting, The Scream by Edvard Munch.įree association is a technique that was practiced and made known by Sigmund Freud. Her first drawing was of herself standing alone in the hospital corridor. Elizabeth studied and practiced a blind contour drawing technique, commonly used in most college level art programs, and unknowingly, spontaneously, she incorporated a form of free association. While grieving the loss of her beloved son, and the circumstances of his death, with her sister’s urging, she took a drawing class. She had been married to an alcoholic and admitted to co-dependency. Through large portions of her life, Elizabeth had been in and out of psychiatric treatment (including 13 episodes of electroshock) for bipolar disorder with poor results. Just before the moment of her son’s death, the nurse “pushed” her out into the hallway, where Elizabeth waited, standing alone as her son died. While there are many ways to draw the self, for therapeutic purposes, my favorite is one that was used by Elizabeth Layton, blind contour self-portraits.Įlizabeth Layton first began drawing at age 68, while depressed over the death of her alcoholic son. Self-portraiture, no matter the technique used, can facilitate the: identification of self and affect (functional or not), establishment and strengthening of a recovery identity, foreshadowing of a deeper level of recovery and/or potential for relapse or violence (toward self or others), grieving, processing of addiction, trauma, physical illness, and chronic pain, processes for self-soothing, affirmations, and self-love, and a place to anchor positive visualizations for the future. I hav found that self-portraiture is one of the greatest tools in my repertoire of psychotherapeutic techniques. Now, with over three decades of facilitating art, at various times for graduate students, psychotherapists, medical doctors, and clients,…. This is especially true in an age when appearance is deemed to be so important.īut Aristotle said, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” To a person looking from outside in, self-portraiture in therapy could appear to reinforce egotism and narcissism.