Conversations without words
My voluntary work in the hospice service gives me great pleasure and is absolutely enriching. For example, I enjoyed preparing and carrying out a series of training courses on art therapy techniques for and with our circle of volunteer death and bereavement attendants. As soon as brushes and paint come into play, completely new levels of conversation can open up. It was very exciting for all of us.
Mysterious
How can I put something unspeakable, mysterious on paper without having to reveal much? How can I open myself a little bit and safely, carry a little bit of what burdens me without revealing too much?
For this we tried out the technique “White on white!”. On prepared surfaces, the same white paint is painted, cracked, wiped, smeared and perhaps blurred again. In the end, there is only as much to be seen as I would like to admit to myself and the viewer. A first step, perhaps, to say something unspeakable.
Feelings are more colorful than guessed
Among other things, the emotional circle shows how accurately each of us assigns a feeling of color. Opposite in a circle, “feeling pairs”, i.e. a mood with the individually found opposite, were arranged. Very accurate and very individual different. Your own emotional world can be experienced much more colorfully than the monotonous grey in which we may feel trapped. 
Embarrassing, embarrassing!
Fabrics, needles and threads are also an exciting material. What is the substance of joy, love, fear, perplexity or longing? Each of us tried to approach a “chosen” emotional situation for this evening, for which I had prepared cards with the appropriate terms. I myself have dedicated my experiment to the rather unpleasant emotional situation of “embarrassment”. A shrill hat has been created, with which I would not have wanted to take a step on the street! A dear colleague then shocked me by going home with the impossible part on her head. Hats off! Even I have just been able to present the thing in a familiar circle just behind closed doors.
