An Overview of Response Art in Art Therapy: Past Present and Future
Abstract
Since the beginning of the field, many art therapists have made artwork to help them manage and understand their practice. Response art is “Art that is made by art therapists to contain, explore, and express clinical work” (Fish 2006, p.13). Response art is an important resource in art therapy because it grounds the work in the therapist’s artistic practice. Response art warrants discussion in order to clarify its meaning, support our understanding of it and to teach it effectively. This paper provides an overview of the history of response art, including its origin in clinical work, current uses in art-based supervision and art-based research.
Art therapists have engaged in making and reflecting on response art throughout the history of art therapy (Fish, 1989; Jones, 1983; Kielo, 1991; Lachman-Chapin, 1983, 2001;
McNiff, 1989; Miller, 2007; Moon,1990, 1999; Robbins, 1988; Wadeson, 1990, 2003; Wolf,
1985). Today, response art is often used as an integral part of art therapy practice, training and supervision (Deaver, 2012; Deaver & Shiflett, 2011; Fish, 2012, 2017a; Fish & Lee 2017;
Schaverien & Case, 2007; Wadeson, 2003). It is also used as data to inform, and as the synthesis of, art-based research (Allen, 1999a; Fish, 2006, 2013, 2017b, 2017c; McNiff, 2013; Leavy,
2013, 2017).
Art therapists who recognize the importance of the artists’ perspective in art therapy, stress the value of maintaining their artists’ identity. (Lachman- Chapin, 1983; Lavery, 1994;
Moon, 1992, 1997, 1999; C. Moon, 2002; Wix, 1996). Art therapists with an artistic practice of creating and reflecting on their images as part of their work, find response art to be a ready tool to contain, explore and communicate about their work (Allen, 1995; Fish, 1989, 2012; McNiff,
1992; Moon 1999; C. Moon, 2002). Due to the focus on art therapy credentialing and licensing, there has been increased discussion about art therapy supervision (Carpendale, 2011; Deaver & Shiflett, 2011; Fish, 2008,
2017a; Lahad, 2000; Miller, 2012; Schaverien & Case, 2007). Art therapists recognize that response art is a valuable resource, supporting therapists’ conceptualization of treatment and helping to clarify their reactions to it. (Deaver, 2012; Fish, 2008, 2012, 2017a; Robb & Miller,
2017; Schaverien & Case, 2007).
Affordable, accessible technology has expanded the potential for the use of response art in art-based supervision, making distance supervision more available. Once video conference platforms are determined to be HIPPA compliant, response art, made and shared during video conferencing, supports distance art-based supervision, contributing to worldwide exchanges of support and ideas (Fish, 2017a; Fish and Lee, 2017).
Interest in qualitative research points to art-based ways of providing evidence and sharing information (Fish, 2006, 2008, 2013, 2017b, 2017c; Franklin, 2010; Leavy, 2017; McNiff,
2013). Allen (1999a), contends that “To make art as a way to dwell in and explore a phenomena leads to truth and heuristic knowing. This is a form of primary research” (p. 160). Fish (2017b,
2017c) used response art as a method for investigation and as data to inform research, creating fiction, synthesized from response art and crafted into stories of clinical experience. This form of social research synthesizes lived experience and carries information into academic and public discourse.
Response art’s use has expanded beyond helping art therapists to understand countertransference. Whether we practice clinically or in the community, teach, supervise, research or advocate for those we work with, the images that we make in response are ready guides to support effective work while helping us to take care of ourselves. References
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