Workshop

My Self and My Energy as a Woman

Week One of the art workshop involved introductions to each other and to the Meditative Process Art method. Artists experimented with colour mixing, mark making, and gentle breath focusing practices, which they then used to create abstract images of their face and their energy. The art created in Week One reveals how art making, thoughts, feelings and bodily sensation started to merge, which indicates growing proficiency with the Meditative Process Art method. The combination of sharing and art making provided a safe space for the peer support that was central in the success of the workshop.

What Sustains Me, What Gives Me Pleasure and Strength

In Week Two, the artists took photographs of what sustained them and gave them strength and pleasure. They then turned these into power symbols that they combined with their photographs in a series of art works. Arranging their symbols and photographs on card, then drawing and writing on top of them embedded their connection to what sustains and gives them strength and pleasure. Sharing their histories, stories from their daily lives, and their experiences of the workshop continued to build the sense of trust and community that started in Week One.

Re-Working Imagery from the Past

In Week Three, artists were introduced to a tradition in the arts of reworking imagery to highlight and critique socio-political issues. Using these tools, they then reworked pictures or posters from around the time of their diagnosis with HIV. While challenging for some, reworking those images provided a way to critique the stigma and ignorance that underpinned them. It also helped artists release suppressed negative emotion, develop their own personal symbol language and regain personal power and agency by resisting harmful cultural narratives in this way. Trust and community continued to grow through sharing and storytelling.

Bringing it All Together to Create the Final Self-Portrait

Week Four was about integrating and applying all of what the artists had learnt through the course of the workshop to create a final self-portrait. In this last week of the workshop, the artists continued to give and receive peer support. This last week contained a final cycle from the MPA method, where artists were able to assimilate the storytelling, sharing, learning and artmaking they experienced in each week of the workshop through cycles of reflection, creation, realization, and application. Importantly, the artworks that resulted from these cycles of reflection and artmaking then acted as reminders of their experiences and insights. As Abbie explained: “It’s something I can physically look at, to kind of encourage myself.”