What is drawing? Bringing the art into art therapy

Abstract

This article explores the sensory and psychological integration that occurs during the process of drawing and identifies some of the most basic elements that are at work in art therapy sessions.

Drawing is a fundamental human activity which expresses and intensifies our experience of existing in the world. Its processes and the trace that these leave, mirror, and reinforce the processes that form our conscious being. In order to explore the interplay of thought, feeling and physical experience, which are brought together in the act of drawing, the article makes connections between statements by contemporary artists and the theories of psychoanalysts, philosophers, art historians, neuro-scientists and art therapists, and investigates the ancient rock-art of the San people of Zimbabwe.

Keywords:

• Consciousness
• creativity
• feeling
• intuition
• process
• trace