18 graduating Marital and Family Therapy/Art Therapy students produced “HOME(BODIES): Bodies Within, Worlds Beyond,” a group exhibition that explored the healing power of art, displayed in the Thomas P. Kelly Jr. Student Art Gallery from September 1 through September 17.
The students collaborated to come up with the theme “HOME(BODIES),” and their diverse portfolio of creative work became a collective exploration of how art can heal by connecting personal identity with the communities and lived experiences that shape and sustain us. Across various mediums, their art showcased aspects of home, evoking comfort and the feeling of being at home in their own bodies.
Artist and prospective art therapist Jane Tse ’23, M.A. ’26 featured three mixed media pieces in the exhibit: “My Sweet Strawberry,” “Comfort Blanket,” and “Blessed is the Peach.”
She said, “I wanted to focus on grieving…and how I found comfort in my own body to help with the grieving process.”
Tse met her spiritual mentor, Sister Maria Lai, C.S.J., as an active participant in Campus Ministry. Knowing Tse was unsure of her career path, Sr. Lai encouraged her to bring art supplies and paint while on a university silent retreat. “Towards the end of the retreat, after a lot of reflection and growing, I just felt a lot lighter.” Sr. Lai helped Tse compare paintings from before and after the retreat and agreed the healing power of art was apparent. This was the start of Tse’s journey with art therapy.
“It’s important to distinguish between art for therapy and art therapy, as the two are quite different,” Tse states. “[Art therapy is] an intentional and intuitive form of healing which is something so needed with everything we are facing in the world today. It’s how we feel when making the art; it’s what we see in the art that we may have not realized in the moment.”
Tse, who majored in studio arts as an undergrad before pursuing her graduate degree, describes that art therapy is different from graphic design, which places emphasis on the end product. “Art therapy is more about the process… It’s a lot of healing and work you’re doing on yourself,” she said.
This sentiment translated: The exhibit had a therapeutic effect on attendees, who could process and reflect on their own responses to the work. Although the artwork is deeply personal to the artists, every piece could be interpreted differently, and the art acted as a healing force for others.
Dean Bryant Keith Alexander, who is a huge proponent of the power and purpose of art therapy, reflects on the nature of the therapeutic effect of art therapy. He states: “I am taken with the construction of ‘feeling making’ in Jane Tse’s testimony. Both active verbs that co-inform each other: making art that invokes and helps to process feelings. In many ways this same affect, meaning the emotional response – could be said for viewing the artwork of art therapists. Each time, I am drawn not only into the artistic product, but the critical sense-making through my engagement of the therapist’s process. And hence creating a generative effect in which I find myself revisiting aspects of my own personal experiences through the rendering of the art.”
Tse hopes the audience found comfort in the exhibit. “I think seeing the art or at least a piece that spoke to you on display as a viewer can evoke a feeling in you that may be suppressed or a memory you’ve forgotten about,” she says. “There’s this comforting idea that although our experiences and interpretations are unique, we can find solace and healing through shared sense of connection, recognizing that art has the power to hold and transform what we carry within.”
LMU College of Communication and Fine Arts and the Department of Marital and Family Therapy with a specialization in art therapy sponsors a student-organized exhibition annually. The programming gives the students an opportunity to showcase their artistry and provides space for the community to learn about the students’ personal journeys and gain insight into why they are pursuing the field of art therapy – to use their skills as artists to heal themselves and others.
