Reflections

"Life moves pretty fast. If you dont stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Ferris Bueller

Bueller was right.
For the past few months i've been working on so many different projects through my work in education with 16-18 year olds, commissioned jobs, creative arts therapies studies and reasearch projects, that i have barely had time to think about making work for myself. Every spare moment i get is spent with family enjoying being a dad and husband...

Although the paintings and photographs have taken a back seat for a while, creativity is still flowing. As i head towards the end of the second year of the Creative Arts Therapies Studies course at City of Bristol College/University of Plymouth i am really beginning to see the potential impact of using creative activities as a way to increase self esteem and boost confidence in young people. In a therapeutic setting, art can used as a tool to improve health and well being - and it is using arts therapeutically with people that has begun to really interest me.

I am developing a few projects that will aim to work with creative arts and people focusing less on the final product and more on the process; investigating the experiences of the journey taken to produce a piece of artwork. I'll be posting results and reflections on a new blog lukepalmerart.blogspot.com as well as other items of interest that involve using creative arts with people.

---

This weekend i managed to grab a hour to get the paint pens and oil pastels out and get drawing with my son. I documented the process with the SLR which showed the little journey we went on and made for a nice little stop frame movie. Our first collaborative piece together, definitely not the last. Great fun!