KATHLEEN FOGEL-RICHMOND, LMFT, ATR-BC

As an art therapist, I strive to help others use art to heal and also understand and make adaptive changes in their lives. My own art making is central to exploring my feelings and understanding my world. Firstly, the process itself of making art is relaxing and meditative. It allows me to clear my mind from stressors while immersing myself only in color choices or strokes on a canvas or shapes emerging out of clay. Secondly, the image content specifically provides a focus for contemplation and exploration through symbolic representation of feelings, experiences or reactions.

The Path
(Mixed Media: altered & printed photo with oil pastels, 10” x 13”) 

This piece comes from a path series I have been working on for the past several years. Ever since the pandemic, I have used walking as a stress management tool, whether it be right outside my front door or getting deeply into nature to immerse myself in beauty. This piece was taken from a recent walk in the redwoods in northern CA. Paths organically lead the viewer to imagine journeying further. At times it is towards a beautiful place, other times, around a bend where the destination is unknown. In this piece, the eye is drawn to continue further down the path where a precarious tree seems poised to fall, suggesting a fear of what might come to pass and how to traverse those obstacles.