AATA Conference Booth

Here we are, selling at the 2010 American Art Therapy Association conference in Sacramento!  Of course, my ceramics didn't make it out of the kiln in time, so all I could sell was some of my watercolors.

I have a plan for combining my watercolor painting style and my ceramics... it's in the works, but it will be slow to come to fruition for sure.

My installation

The gallery is open now so I thought I would post a picture of my installation! This is the final piece to my thesis project, all of my work (including the poetry) all in one place. PHEW!

Colors of Summer

Even though it's gross out, my food is eternally hopeful. I'm going to a graduation celebration potluck picnic today and I'm bringing this summery bean salad (it's a little spicy, too).

What's in it? I thought you'd never ask.

• 1 can of corn (strained)
• 1 can of black beans (strained)
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 2 bell peppers (red and green), chopped
• 1 lime's worth of juice
• salt
• "Tears of Joy" spice mix to taste (you can use cumin, chili powder, and whatever other spices taste nice)

In the summer when I have fresh corn, sometimes I will cook and pre-spice the corn myself for this salad, but it takes longer.

Sneak Peek!

I installed my piece in the show today... it took 5 hours, yes, five whole hours, but it's done. Installed and done. It looks so good. It's all of my thesis artwork and poetry in one place, grouped together and everything. If you've read my thesis, you'll understand it more than just seeing it on the wall, but I think even just seeing it on the wall will be interesting. The poetry will invite people to become intimately involved in my pieces, not just letting them view them from a distance.

Can't wait to see what everyone's stuff looks like on Friday!!!!

AATA Conference: Shabbat Edition

What's spending Shabbat at a conference like? Hard, weird, challenging, and... basically... not the best Shabbat you've ever spent. For sure.

I had to do things like... buy sandwiches for Friday dinner and Saturday lunch on Friday and then keep them in the hotel room refrigerator, stock up on snacks for the day, bring tea bags so I could get free hot water and make tea, chase people to the elevator to ask them to push buttons for me, and hope my roommates were in the room when I got back so they could open the door. It was interesting. I gave money to one of my classmates in advance to take care of any expenses for me just in case. I'm not saying I kept Shabbat as well as I keep it at home, but I stuck mostly to my comfort zone.

I put a notice on the bulletin board for Kabbalat Shabbat, but nobody showed up. Oh well.

Friday night I had a department party to go to, which was really fun. We stayed a lot later than we had anticipated, and then when I got back to the room my roommates weren't there (they left the party early to go out to a bar). So I finished my book that I brought, which isn't really smart because then tonight while I was waiting for Shabbat to be over I had nothing to read. Then my roommates came back tipsy, so I had fun having weird conversations with them until we fell asleep.

This morning I slept in... had a cookie for breakfast, and then spent the rest of the day keeping busy at the conference doing things that didn't require writing or art making.

• Commemorating Catastrophe: Community art making in New Orleans on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina
  This presentation was done by two alums of my program so it was cool to see the work they are doing now. I really appreciated Holly beginning by describing how she messed up the first year she was supposed to do it, did everything in a way that was not culturally appropriate, and nobody showed up. It was good to hear that. She described all the lessons she learned and the success of the programs once she implemented those lessons. I think in many ways what she learned is also reflected in the way my site uses therapy, art, art therapy, etc.
  
  
• Multicultural Exchange Forum
  I went to this not sure what to expect. I'm glad I went... I'm not sure what constitutes "multicultural," and that was one thing I meant to bring up but didn't get a chance to. Technically it encompasses everyone, it sounds like. But I wonder about being White and wanting to be involved in multicultural events - does being Jewish count? I don't know. And someone mentioned how when she had issues with her department she didn't realize there was a Multicultural Committee to back her up. I wonder: if I had known about the Multicultural Committee back last Fall when I was having a conflict with my department about days off for religious holidays, would I have contacted them? And, if so, would they have done anything?
  
  Also, I caught up with the person who led the presentation on transgender youth the other day. (Last night I also happened to run into someone else who had been in that presentation who wanted to talk to me about my site since I had mentioned it in a response) She is trying to put together a sub-committee for LGBT issues in art therapy and in the American Art Therapy Association and wants me to be in on it. So that might be cool. I'm not sure how I feel about that, not identifying with the LGBT community but rather as an ally and someone who sees similarities in that community to my own. But I'm also becoming involved in this observant Jewish sub-group of the AATA so I wonder how many different things I will be involved in.
  
  
• Drawing Out the Shadow: Art Therapy and Sexual Addiction
  Not sure how I feel about this presentation. It as the fourth presentation I went to at the conference having to deal with sexuality and I was debating not going at all since there are other things to see. But I couldn't really see a good reason not to go. But the person leading the presentation had a way about her that really put me off... I was kind of uncomfortable throughout much of the presentation. She referred to people suffering from sexual addiction as "sex addicts," which made me uncomfortable right off the bat because they drill into our heads in our program a "person-centered" approach, which means you wouldn't refer to people as their diseases but rather as a person WITH a disease/disorder/whatever.
  
  And then there were some things she said about internet pornography that bothered me, like how it is the "gateway drug," like she said marijuana is a gateway drug, saying that studies show people who use marijuana are likely to use other substances (which I think is really outdated information, at least that's not what we learned in our substance use class this summer). I know a lot of people who look at internet porn who are not addicted to sex just like I know people who smoke marijuana who have either never tried any other drugs (other than nicotine or alcohol) or who have tried other drugs and did not continue their use. It just sounded really outdated and a bad comparison. She didn't explain how someone can be addicted to a behavior as opposed to a substance - for example, heroin addiction affects certain chemicals in the brain, and when you withdraw you have a chemical withdrawal in the body. How does one become addicted to a behavior? Or is it a compulsion, more in line with anxiety, like OCD? Not explained.
  
  Especially after attending the session on Thursday about having conversations with clients about sexuality, I was uncomfortable about the way this information was presented. It sounded like she thought pornography was was something that is toxic to people and relationships, something that healthy people wouldn't look at/read. And I'm not sure what she meant by "excessive" in any respect (sexual activity, masturbation, pornography viewing) and there was no talk about whether or not the client is distressed by this or it causing impairment in functioning as being the main reason for the diagnosis. She kept talking about these people as being narcissists and shameful... I wonder what was going on there in terms of counter-transference.
  
  
• Harm's Touch
  This presentation was done by one of the faculty in our department. It was about using response art to hold the trauma we hear from our clients or see around us. I really like the way she uses response art, how she really prescribes it as necessary for our profession. My journal is full of weird little drawings that I do right after something happens as a way of letting it out... I am not as strong in response art, but she did her entire PhD on the use of response art, so, you know.
  
  
• Annual Business Meeting
  I didn't get to go to last year's business meeting because I didn't wake up in time. This year they held it at the end of the conference so I got to stay and see how everything works. I think it was a relatively good meeting, some stuff was said (not sure if it was heard), and I got to see who Judy Rubin is finally... Everyone is obsessed with her but I have no idea what she looks like. Judy Rubes!!!!

And now I am going to join some friends in the city for a pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving feast.

Tomorrow I'm having brunch with someone I met at the conference and then I'm heading home!

AATA Conference (quick, before Shabbat!)

I have a few minutes before Shabbat starts so here is today's AATA Conference review.

I woke up really late and missed the keynote, but I heard it wasn't too exciting, so okay. I overslept because I was up late freaking out about my cat who decided to eat something she wasn't supposed to and had to be taken to the emergency vet by JewishGuy. Awesome. She's going to be okay, though, at least that was my last update.

So the first thing I went to was going to be a panel about mistakes with working with adolescents and using those mistakes for future lessons... I gave it about 15 minutes, and was like, okay, today I am not going to sit in on presentations I'm not interested in, and got up and left. I went to another session instead. This was the lesson learned from yesterday's missing an awesome presentation because I was for some reason afraid to leave the room.

• Sexually Abusive Adolescents and Self Portraits
  This was the presentation I went to instead of the one about making mistakes with adolescents. This was actually really cool - they had the adolescents take photos, then printed the photos onto transparencies, which were then projected onto the wall and then traced. It was great to hear how successful this is (I have heard of this technique before). I wonder what this would be like at my site... Also they mentioned that as long as they have been tracking discharges, 80% of their clients who are discharged have not offended again. Wow.
  
  
• Art studio time
  After lunch I spent some time in the art studio. I took a photo of the studio (with my phone) which eventually I will upload. It was so peaceful and relaxing. I met a few people while making art, one person is an alumnus from my program. I love the art studio... the classic "networking" events don't really necessarily make sense for art therapists, many of whom rely on their artwork for much of their communication with other people they don't know - ie: clients... So it's in the art studio that I feel most outgoing and comfortable.
  
  
• YOWSA: The influence of the art therapist's delight by Bruce Moon
  Bruce is a great presenter. His group sounded something like some of the groups I lead, except that he is clearly a much more experienced art therapist and is better able to hold a safe space. My groups are not very safe. I'm not very good at that right now, especially with this population. I'm working on it, though. It was great to hear his success though :) It was great to hear that he let group members sit and not make art for as many sessions as they needed, they could just sit and listen to music if they wanted. Maybe I should be more relaxed about that, too.
  
  
• Attempt at jewelry making workshop
  It wasn't clear that there was a sign-up for the workshop. I was excited when I found out Shabbat started a bit after 5 because the workshop was at 4pm and I had originally thought Shabbat started at 4. When I showed up, though, they turned me away :( Instead, I made a card that will be sent to a soldier wishing him/her a happy holiday season and then came back to the room.
  
  
• Observant Jewish art therapists networking
  I have met a few shomer Shabbat people here, and one person suggested that since I am staying in the hotel for Shabbat maybe I could lead Kabbalat Shabbat services... so I put a note on the community bulletin board inviting people to join me at 5:45. She let me borrow her siddur for Shabbat so I could do the service, so we'll see!
  

Okay time to go!!! Shabbat Shalom!

Posting from AATA Conference

Hello from Texas, I am at the AATA Conference this weekend! I miss Texas. I miss warm Novembers and tasty Mexican food.

So here I am!

What have I done so far?

Wednesday I did work on the airplane for my thesis, look at me being so industrious! Something else I miss about Texas... We landed and the guy in the row in front of me reaches out across the aisle to shake hands with the Navy man sitting there. He said, "Before you leave I just want to thank you for your service," and shook his hand. Then someone alerted him to a woman who was sitting nearby who is also a soldier going home in plain clothes and he shook her hand too.

It turned out I was on the same airplane as someone in my program (we found this out when she got up to use the bathroom at the end of the flight and I happened to see her pass me). When we landed we called two of our faculty who also had landed at the same time at the same airport and all rode together. These two faculty members are also big names in the field and besties, so it was kind of fun to share a cab with them. When we got to the hotel we threw down our stuff, registered for the conference, then went for sushi with friends from the program. We went to CVS to buy snacks and BLUEBELL ICE CREAM (another thing I miss about Texas), which we devoured.

This morning my head decided to have its monthly migraine, so that woke me up at around 4am, and I didn't really sleep again. I got a phone call at 7am from someone I was going to meet (didn't realize she was going to call at 7am, though), and then I decided to take a migraine pill, so I could finally sleep. I hesitated to take the pill because it has a lot of caffeine in it and I wanted to sleep, but I was so exhausted that the relief at the lack of migraine overpowered the caffeine.

What I did at the conference today:

• Sexuality & Art Therapy
  This was a fabulous presentation. I am going to buy the book she referenced heavily: "The Heart & Soul of Sex" by Gina Ogden. Unfortunately, the presenter didn't tell the book store station (at the conference) they were going to present on that book in advance so there were no copies available to buy immediately after. I'm lucky, though, because this book is going to be ordered to the store so I can just go pick it up sometime soon (or just order it on Amazon). The presenter talked about bringing healthy conversations about sexuality into therapy, normalizing sexuality with clients, etc. It was great and very empowering!!
  
• "It Begins With Us" - Working with Transgender Clients
  This was an okay presentation but I made kind of a prejudiced statement before going that I was only going to go to presentations done by people with MA or above because often the presentations done by people with lesser degrees (ie: undergrad or grad students) are not very well researched. This was a presentation of a class project she did. If she had had more time and had really done a real research project by sending our her survey to more people, there may have been more results (also if she had consulted someone on her survey questions). It was pretty good, though, especially for a class assignment. But they didn't really bring in any of the deeper subjects relating to working with transgender clients, or really many honest responses to people who identify as transgender... I skipped a presentation about Gush Katif for this one - that presentation was apparently AMAZING, people CRIED - so I am kind of sad...
  
• MARI Card Assessment
  (What is the MARI Card Assessment?) I had been looking forward to this all year, ever since last year I missed it because I waited until the end of the conference and there was no time left. Also last year I chose to research this assessment for my class and it is super top secret, there isn't much information about it anywhere! This was a really amazing experience... It ended up being a lot about my wrestling with my Jewish identity and spirituality... WOW.
  
• "Points of You: The Coaching Game" trial
  I was walking around the exhibition room and I heard two women speaking in Hebrew so I went over to the booth where they were standing and basically asked if I could practice my Hebrew on them. So they said, we can give you our shpeal in Hebrew if you want! So that's what they did... it is actually a really cool game that inspires a lot of interesting conversations. It's basically irresistible - you feel compelled to talk about the cards you pick! Very cool. It's really new and was developed in Israel. I have a few critiques about it, though, one big one being that all the people pictured in the cards are White. But it is a really cool tool. Plus I got to practice some Hebrew.
  
• Student session with Pat Allen
  This session was designed to be a small conversation, I guess Pat didn't realize how many people would show up because there were more than 50 people in the room, actually probably close to 80! So it was just her answering questions... describing the Open Studio Process (OSP). It was obvious nobody in the room really knew who she was because people were really confused about the OSP - she never identified it by name, herself. But one person did say "oh do you do something like the OSP?" and I laughed inside... She invented the OSP! Literally! But she didn't say that, she was really cool about it. It was kind of annoying, though, I didn't need to sit in a session about the OSP, but because I sat in the front row I couldn't leave! Near the end we did talk somewhat about jobs and whatever... I don't know. Last year's student session with Shawn McNiff didn't get so derailed, but mostly because he didn't ask for anyone's opinions about anything hahaha.
  
• Art of Edith Kramer Opening Reception
  This was cool, Edith Kramer is one of the Founding Mothers (or the "אמהות" "imahot" if you want to make a reference to the biblical matriarchs, since there are 4 haha) of Art Therapy. Here I actually introduced myself to someone I had been seeing around the conference all day, turns out she lives kind of near my parents and knows one of the teachers at my school. Ha! Small world... The shuttles were timed really badly, so it took forever to get there and back, so I almost missed the movie about art made by Holocaust survivors, which I wanted to see. They had underestimated the amount of space they needed for the audience of that movie anyway, so I got there about 30min into the movie but people were sitting out in the hall on the floor or on piano benches because there were no more seats. I just gave up.

SO. that is the conference so far. I don't know what the rest of the conference update will look like because Shabbat starts at 4pm tomorrow and then as soon as it's over on Saturday I am going to a friend's house in the city for dinner. That should be fun :)

Professional Progress Reviews: Resolution

I didn't write about what happened at the progress review.

Actually, it went really well.  Talking about it beforehand made me realize that what I was most worried about was Judaism coming up in the review like it did in the initial advising session I had back in the beginning of September.  I met with my advisor like everyone else but also to talk about the absences I was going to have because of Jewish holidays.  I think the meeting did not go very well and I left feeling like I had to prove myself and defend my religious observances.

So... I was nervous that was going to happen again.  But instead, they said that the way I dealt with my absences was admirable and professional and it ended up being really great.  What a relief.  I almost cried, I was so nervous and to hear them be so nice almost made me cry.  They said a lot of nice things about me and said I was doing a great job and doing well in the program and to keep it up, basically.

PHEW.

Also, my psychopathology teacher mentioned how we have a common love for The Simpsons, Seinfeld, and classic SciFi.  AHHH.  We are going to be best friends.  (Our class is basically his fan club, he is leaving the school this year to go with his wife and start a new medical school so we bought him a bottle of scotch and decorated the box and the bottle and gave him a ton of cards)

So... I'm glad that's over with.  Now that the progress review is done, I'm finding it hard to really get nervous about anything else.  I used up all of my stress on it.  I have the psychopathology final, the gallery opening (and closing) for my materials and media class, and my final critique in my studio class, and I'm just like, whatever!

Professional Progress Reviews

I haven't had mine yet.  It's later this afternoon.  I am SO NERVOUS.  Last night I was sitting at dinner and my stomach felt weird and my palms were sweaty and clammy.  I said, "I feel weird."  JewishGuy asked what did I mean weird.  And I said, "Give me a minute, I will think of the word."  And after a little bit of contemplation I said, "Anxious?"  At which point he reminded me that I had my progress review coming up tomorrow (today).

Every time I think of it I get really nervous, my heart races and my palms sweat.

The weird thing is, I think I am doing pretty well in the program.  My exams come back with good grades, my papers are not returned for revision, my presentations seem to go over well, I participate in every class, I am on time and my assignments are on time, and so on.  But the idea of 6 faculty members sitting around me and talking about me TO/WITH me makes me EXTREMELY nervous.  Also, they have all prepared packets with their feedback that I am supposed to read before I go in front of them.

I am more nervous than I was at my interview.

Everyone is really nervous.  I'm trying not to talk about it too much with everyone because I don't want to feed other people's nerves.  So here I am, writing about it on my art blog, even though it's not necessarily the right place for it.

Reporting on the AATA Conference

I feel like I should do a post about the American Art Therapy Association conference, because it was the first time I was involved in art therapy on a professional level.

First, I do want to mention that the field is very new and it shows in many ways.  Art therapy has only been around as an organized "profession" for about 50- or 60-ish years, so we still don't know exactly what we want to "be."  Are we artists with training in therapy, or therapists who use art as a major part of their therapy?  Although the continuum is important, it's still telling to see some of the research that was presented at the conference.  Not only that, but it was interesting to see the way research and findings were presented.

For example, many of the presenters that I went to were showing the results of some research in the field.  One that I was particularly interested in was doing art with adolescent patients in a children's hospital.  I was interested in this because I had spent some time volunteering at Texas Children's Hospital and noticed that the teenagers were relatively uninvolved in their surroundings (even though Texas Children's does a good job of not infantalizing the surroundings for the most part, in my opinion).  The presentation was interesting, but focused more on the case studies than on practical applications of the findings.  This was similar to pretty much every other presenter I saw.  I went to one presentation on art books as a transitional object for patients with eating disorders, and the entire presentation was case studies.  Fascinating, yes!  Applicable ... not really, well, at least not for me as a student with no experience with people with eating disorders.  I wished that we had learned more about HOW TO USE art books as a transitional object, or HOW TO GET adolescents involved in art making in a children's hospital, but I didn't leave those presentations feeling like I had learned those concepts.

Also, many presentations felt the need to justify using art therapy - in general - with that particular population.  I think that this was simply preaching to the choir.  Yes, art therapy allows the client to feel more in control and have choices over their lives, builds self-esteem through skill acquisition, etc etc.  How about you skip over that and get to the good stuff?

One more less-than-positive ... this was just one presentation, but it makes me wonder about the quality of some of the research.  Someone presented a digital poster (not sure what that means, anyway) about an experiment that she ran, and the experiment was full of holes.  Way too many variables.  She didn't run it herself, as she only has a BA, she ran the experiment with the help of a working art therapist with all kinds of licensure and blahdieblah, and there were just so many variables she got no results at all.  It makes me wonder because a lot of people feel the need to justify art therapy to the mental health community (which was kind of what this experiment was about, in my opinion), but how can you justify us with bad experiments?

POSITIVE STUFF!

I went to Shaun McNiff's student session.  HOW AWESOME.  Basically, McNiff is quoted in all of the research I am doing for a presentation on the importance of art therapists participating in the art community.  I was so excited that I was able to sit in his session, and not only that, (I am telling everyone about this) I asked a question and he said GREAT QUESTION, THAT IS REALLY IMPORTANT.  He talked about negative view so many people have of art therapists, ie: "Anything you paint can and will be used against you," (this was not the first time someone has said this but it is still funny).  I asked him how do we make people NOT feel that way when we are with them.  It was great.  I took a lot of notes.  I will be using this in my paper and presentation on Tuesday.

The keynote speaker was of course hilarious and great.  He showed us a video of two neurons making a synaptic connection - like when you pair the visual image of a cow with the word "cow," how does that connection get made but through repetition.  He did a funny little "performance piece" about it, with his two hands wiggling fingers towards each other and finally connecting while repeating COW COW COW.

Also, there was this "open studio" available to everyone at the conference - at any time, you could go to the studio room and make art using the materials provided.  It was really great.  I managed to squeeze in there before Shabbat and made some monoprints.  I also talked to a lady who says she founded City ArtWorks in Houston, which was really interesting, I am glad that I met her!  I think I applied for a job there back in the day, if only I had known her then.

The open studio was especially great because I think it really sets the art therapy conference apart from other psychology/therapy conferences.  Yes, there were the art workshops that people could sign up for (for extra money, ahh), but there was also this studio space that anyone could go to at any time.  I don't know what the participation was like, as there were about a thousand people at the conference I highly doubt that even half that many went to the studio - but you never know!  I would be interested to find out if anyone had been keeping track.

Another great aspect of the conference was the bonding in our program.  So many people from our class went to the conference this year and I think it was a really great experience for us to have together.  I especially bonded with the five people who shared the hotel room with me, with our late night conversations sharing embarrassing stories, tarot readings, and group therapy.  It was really great and even though I got no sleep I felt really inspired by everyone.

So much happened last weekend and it is really hard to process!  Good thing there are pictures, hilarious pictures, like the ones of our department head and assistant department head boogeying on the dance floor.  AWESOME.

AATA Conference

Wow!  I just got back from the American Art Therapy Association 39th Annual Conference and I had SO much fun!  Will write more about it later... one day I will actually write about art therapy on this blog.

Switched My Studio

I switched out of Art & Spirituality today.  I have four lecturey classes and the Art & Spirituality lecture half was really the straw that broke the camel's back kind of thing.  I am excited for my new class:

Printmaking: Digital and Traditional Routes

Where traditional boundaries between media have all but disappeared, high quality digital printing and non-toxic screen printing and transfer techniques have made it possible for artists to combine mechanical reproduction and painting. This course combines printmedia's imaging processes with studio painting to create hybrid works complex in form and content. Technical demonstrations and critical discussion will drive independent projects that redefine the parameters of contemporary print and painting studio practice.

Baaaasically it's screenprinting for painters/people who want to combing different printmaking media and also combine it with painting!  Fun!

I want to write more about school here and also show pictures of art.  Also I realize I signed up for NaBloPoMo so I better get on the posting wagon.  Unfortunately I am already woefully behind in my reading and assignments, so I am going to try to catch up with that a little bit.

I also think I am going to write a little bit about the challenges of being more religiously observant in grad school, especially an art program, and especially life.  I think that belongs here, right?

You thought it was bad!

Remember how I wrote about that awful experience I had interviewing at the grad school in New York?  And how I didn't get in anyway?

WELL.  Someone one-upped me!

One of the people in my program also interviewed at that school, and also went to New York specifically for that interview because they refused to do it over the phone.

But get this, she is from Korea.  She flew all the way to New York for the interview (paid $1200 for a plane ticket!) and the woman didn't even show up to interview her!  She sat there alone for a while before going off in search of someone, and finally some grad student - who had never heard of her or seen her portfolio or application - "interviewed" her without apologizing for the lack of welcome!

I don't know if she got in or not, but she said that after that experience she was pretty determined to not go to that school even if she did get in.

Who do they think they are, anyway?

Class updates!

Two things:

#1: I registered for my summer Intro to Art Therapy class, finally!

#2: I got into my top choice class, Painting/Drawing: Art & Spirituality!

I am ridiculously, stupidly excited for class next year.  Look at my schedule and tell me how awesome it is...

Tuesday

9am - noon: History and Theory of Art Therapy

This course introduces the art therapy student to the field's historical and theoretical aspects. The semester begins with investigations of historical events (e.g., 'outsider art', art education, the history of mental health care) that laid the groundwork for what would develop into the field of art therapy. Topics presented include early pioneers of the field and contemporary theorists who use art in psychotherapy and counseling.

1pm - 4pm: Counseling Techniques

This course addresses the integration of verbal and nonverbal counseling methods within the practice of art therapy. Empathic listening, assessment skills, and treatment planning are emphasized, along with ethical standards and cultural competence.

Thursday

9am - 4pm: Painting/Drawing: Art & Spirituality

This is a studio course with accompanying lectures working from a basis in the sacred, spiritual, and visionary traditions of art making. Its purpose is to assist and facilitate the students' encounters and explorations of these forms, whether representational or abstract, and to discuss the work created. This course consists of studio work, lectures, visiting artists, students' readings, visual research, journal work, and a final presentation.

Friday

9am - noon: Psychopathology

This course presents the central concepts of contemporary mental health diagnosis (DSM-IV). Emphasis is placed on etiology, terminology, and symptom profiles. This material provides art therapy students with a conceptual foundation shared by a variety of medical and mental health practitioners.

1pm - 4pm: Materials & Media in Art Therapy

This course is an examination of the qualities and properties of art materials, media, and processes, and their applications in the context of art therapy. Socially constructed understandings of the significance of materials and media, as well as the relevance of contemporary art practices to art therapy, are investigated through lecture, discussion, and experiential formats.

Every single class sounds interesting to me. :)

I remember looking at some grad programs before I decided on art therapy and there was always at least once class every semester that I didn't want to take.  JUST another confirmation that this is the right place for me.

The only problem I see here is that the Friday class ends kind of late, as there might be conflicts with Shabbat later on in the year.  When it starts getting dark at around 5pm I'm going to want to be home by 4!  I don't think this will be a big problem, though, I'm sure I could leave early if I had to.

Woo classes!!!

OK... so I haven't even registered for classes yet, I have a lot of things to think about before this, BUT.  Today I was looking at studio classes for my first semester in grad school.  I can take ONE studio class a semester, and I have to pick 4 or 5 and rank them in order or priority since I will be registering late (being a new student).

Here are my favorites so far:

Painting & Spirituality

(combines painting, journaling, spirituality, explorations in faith and painting, etc... SOUNDS AWESOME)

Woven Structure Basics

(yes, the LOOM)

Artists' Books

(as a person who collects interesting journals, I bet it would be fun to make my own)

Intro to Screenprinting

(because I have wanted to take this class ever since I started printmaking stuff like 6 years ago)

I think this is the order in which they are ranked as well.  I think the painting and spirituality class sounds perfect for me.  Hello?  JewishGalArt???

Where to go?

So back when I was applying to schools I was hoping I would have this kind of decision to make but I didn't realize how difficult a decision it would be. I was hoping that I would get into two grad schools so I would have to decide, but I guess I assumed it would be pleasant to have a choice.

Now I have to decide: Chicago or New York.

I think we are leaning towards Chicago for a few reasons. First of all, the school is incredibly prestigious and I think I would get a lot from them that I may not be able to get from the school in New York. (On the other hand, I think the school in NYC has more opportunities for experience in the field built in, in Chicago you kind of have to make your own opportunities outside of the required internship if you want it) I kind of also feel like, if I go to the school in New York, I will always kind of wonder what it would have been like to go to the school in Chicago. I don't know that I would feel that way in the opposite situation. Also, JewishGuy feels like Chicago is a better city for us and our personalities, which may be true.

On the other hand, Chicago is EXTREMELY, extremely cold, and very far away from family. In New York, we'd be about a 4 hour drive from Boston and a 5 hour drive from DC (depending on how fast you drive). Chicago is significantly far away from all three of those cities (at least 12 hours drive). Also, we would be living in a teeny little closet of an apartment in New York for the same price as a moderately sized place in Chicago. And, living in Chicago there is a better chance of people actually visiting us - I think in the 6 years JewishGuy has been where we are now, his family has come down once, and he's had 3 friends visit. My family came down twice and I've had no friends visit. I can't really say I blame them... why would someone come to visit this city? So I guess even if we are in this disconnected city, people might come to visit, especially during the summer months for things like Lalapalooza.

On the third hand, as our friend pointed out, it's only two years. If we live there during my program and decide we don't really like it and want to move to New York or wherever after two years, whatever, it's totally open.

I guess it's not such a hard decision, but I still feel like I haven't given New York much of a chance. But it may be more about the schools than about the cities, which I think it should be (as long as JewishGuy is happy in both cities) I think if this had been a choice between the school in New York and the school in Boston, even though I'd really like to live in Boston, it would be hands down no problem New York just based on the schools. But that's not my choice. So...

Grad School News!!!

I GOT INTO THE NEW YORK SCHOOL, TOO!!!

(the one where I just interviewed last week!)

Now I have to decide... New York or Chicago?

Interview #3/List #6: New York, revisted

Yesterday I had an interview at one of my very most top schools. It is a little nerve-wracking to have your admission to a university be based on 20 minutes. The Chicago interview was a whole day, so by the time I got to my individual interview after the first 6(ish) hours of being there, I was pretty relaxed and it went well.

I'm not saying the interview in New York didn't go well, I just think I was a little more nervous because it was really just a short period, and very very intense.

I went with my friend GeckoMan. We had lunch beforehand, where I drank lots of tea to be awake as I haven't slept much in a week for various reasons. GeckoMan waited in the lobby while I was interrogated. Basically, three people sat and asked me questions in rapid succession for twenty minutes. I think I was pretty good at answering them and handled myself well. Then, they set me up in a room to complete a short writing assignment - I had fifteen minutes to explain how I would react to a certain circumstance that could come up on the job. I answered it in probably five or six sentences, and then spent the next ten minutes rereading it trying to figure out if I missed anything. Nope. I was pretty much direct and to the point, so I let it be and handed it in.

I should find out by mid-April, which is good because I need to let the Chicago school know by the beginning of May. So far, still no word from the third New York school I applied to, and the Boston school keeps saying I don't have my prerequisites even though I am working on them right now. We'll see what happens with that.

A few differences between this interview and the other NY interview:

1. They remembered me from December! Even the administrative person remembered me, and I barely talked to her! They didn't remember that I had been there in December, but they recognized me and knew that I had already come in. That's why I went in for the information session, so I am glad that trip was worth it. Remember at the other interview, she had no idea who I was, even though I had talked to her for a while in December.

2. They took me in on time, and while I was waiting gave me updates as to whether or not they would be on time. At the other interview, I was taken in over thirty minutes late, with no status updates. At one point I was afraid she had forgotten, and the receptionist basically did not pay any attention to me - just let me sit out there like an idiot, wondering what was going on!

3. They didn't seem to have an attitude of, you are person #198237012 that we have seen, and we are bored of interviews and probably don't like you much anyway. They seemed interested in me, seemed to have read most of my application (even though they focused mostly on my volunteering in the hospital and not as much on the years of experience with people). At the other school, she basically treated me like she was doing me a favor by interviewing me, like giving me oooone last chance to change her mind. Also, she made me tell her about my slides on the spot - I had no idea that I would have to talk about my work, which really caught me off guard.

4. Even though they had a very interrogative style, they asked a wide variety of questions and didn't focus mostly on why I feel I should go to their school - ie, didn't make me sit there and tell them how great they are. They also didn't keep asking me why I chose to do things, they just asked me about my experience. At the other interview, I had questions like, "So, why art therapy?" "Why our school?" "Why art therapy at our school?" (I'm not even joking)

5. I didn't leave with a sense of utter rejection and loser-y-ness. I left feeling kind of jittery, and although I was unsure of the impression I left on the committee I was pretty positive. After the other interview, I wanted to cry. I also had to go straight to the airport. I basically left the building and immediately called JewishGuy to rant at him and feel hopeless about ever getting into school.

More on my adventures with GeckoMan in my next entry, where I talk about St. Patrick's day in NYC!

Grad School Here I Come!

I got into the school in Chicago!!!!!

That is my only entry for today, as I am exhausted. More about my New York interview, St. Patrick's day, and more... later!

Perfect Ending

I wrote about my ridiculously terrible experience interviewing at the school in NYC a couple of weeks ago.

Before I tell you the end of the story, I want to tell you two things I learned this weekend about that school while in Chicago.

#1: That school was interviewing literally every applicant... one at a time, in 20 minute interviews, no matter how far away the applicant lived. I thought I was special for getting an interview, but I wasn't. At least the school in Chicago had a whole day planned for us - if you're going to make an interview mandatory for every single applicant, at least make it worth their time, you know?

#2: At the end of my interview in NYC, the woman said that she would let me know in 2-3 weeks, 3 weeks at the most. At that point I was like, wow, good thing I got my interview in before they made decisions. This weekend, I found out that they weren't finished interviewing there (because I met people who hadn't gone in for their interviews yet). Therefore, I came to the conclusion that I wasn't going to get into that school, because why would she promise to contact me before they'd even finished interviewing if they were planning on accepting me.

And then I came home to a letter from the school.

"I am sorry that your application was unsuccessful. I wish you luck in your future endeavors."

Excuse me? My application was not "unsuccessful." The application went through. The application was successful. You have rejected me. At least have the cojones to reject me without being passive-aggressive. What. Ever.

What REALLY pisses me off about this whole thing was that obviously they were going to reject me. They knew before I got there that they didn't want me in their school. I showed up, she took me in late, didn't apologize, wasn't interested in me, hadn't finished reading my application, didn't remember who I was. They didn't offer a tour of the campus, an outline of their program, or any specifics about anything at all. And Yet. They still decided it was worth it to waste my time and make me fly all the way up to New York just so they could confirm that they were going to reject me.

Anyway, at least that's over with. I'm going to try to focus on the positive experience I had at the school in Chicago.