s down. When he was in the hospital his physical therapist strapped a paintbrush to his hand and insisted he try. Souders says that to his great shock and surprise the painting turned out much better than I could have dreamed. He felt a new sense of self worth and has since turned art into a career. (Longman, 69) Helen Kossoff, another disabled person who has turned to art says, Art is a way of spending time,. Not to be sitting around too much and thinking about yourself. You think of other people. I draw other people when I think of them. (70)At the University of South Florida School of medicine, Dr. Lois LaCivita Nixon is offering an elective art course for medical students. She shows students such artwork as Guernica by Picasso and asks them to find the underlying meanings. She also shows them works by Munch, Kahlo, Rembrandt, and others. Kahlo for example had an accident and portrayed her suffering in her art, she also had several miscarriages and included references to being without children in her works. (72) Today the therapeutic value of the arts is being recognized to a broader extent. Art activity centers have now been established in many hospital pediatric programs. These centers encourage children who have experienced trauma, disease, or disability to express the many emotions experienced in these situations through creative, often non-verbal experiences. These art approaches offer a supportive, non- confrontational, activity-centered treatment that fosters personal expression and serves as an alternative or catalyst to verbal therapy. (Lynch) Where exactly can creative arts fit into rehabilitation? If the relationship between creative activity and inner well-being is to be understood, and if the creative arts are to gain acceptance in mainstream rehabilitation, art must first be viewed as a process rather than as a product (Lynch)As evidenced above, the creation of art is a therapeutic process. Whether it is an amputee o...
