Alison Veazey, 4 – 10 June 2022
My time at BV offered me the time and space to consider the sensory differences between the two environments: the feeling of the Cornish summer heat, mist and wind and the wall of sound of the sea – a contrast to the sound of insects and birdsong in the hot, deserted Devon lanes in lockdown, reminiscent of a childhood when everybody didn’t own a car, or of being on the continent at siesta time. On inland paths I could hear birds and insects and, as at home, catch glimpses of faraway water. I came to understand through my lockdown work that detachment, distance and isolation had been key features of my artwork for a long time, and in a sense I could embrace this on my walks now, greeting fellow walkers but carrying with me a feeling of invisibility and anonymity. The physicality of walking the path was at the heart of the process.
Equally significant during my time at BV has been the attention I could pay to the unconscious processes of the inner landscape and to finding visual metaphors in my journey, not only from south Devon to west Cornwall, but from teacher and practising artist to emerging art psychotherapist. I tried to come with few expectations of myself, but inevitably found myself wrestling with desires to simultaneously make the most of the landscape, the studio space, the long daylight hours and the opportunity to sit at the open door and watch Lands End and the Longships come in and out of view in the mist: conflicting desires which mirror the demands of my life and my studies, and my reluctance to slow down or to do less. Reflecting on this allowed space for playfulness and experimentation, and for artmaking quite different from the work I have previously developed and exhibited. It will take a while to process and work with what emerged during my time at BV, and within my studies I’m considering what happens to the artist’s practice during the art psychotherapy training.
An ongoing personal art practice is a requirement for an art psychotherapist, and the space that I allowed for some playfulness and for reflection on my creative practice will inevitably feed into my clinical practice, and allow me a deeper understanding of the experiences of service users, clients and patients as they find meaning in their own engagement with art materials and processes.
http://www.alisonveazey.co.uk
