1. Art Therapy at UC Davis Children's Hospital

Art therapy in the pediatric setting not only helps children to cope with the hospital experience, but also allows them to take an active part in their own healing. Art therapy places the value on art as a tool and not as a fine art product. During individual sessions and the daily art group, children engage in a wide variety of mediums and techniques which are both developmentally appropriate, enjoyable and open to the entire family, thus allowing families a place to participate in normal activities.

threads

I'm trying to find a new thread for my work. Last I left off, I was thinking about how to combine the very rough paper quilting with the more sophisticated quilting that I've learned in fabric. The very complicated twists and turns that are possible in cloth are incredibly seductive.

Well, that was interesting and trying to use the panels to carry that out on was a good idea--but time and migraines have slowed all that down. Now, I'm trying to pick up that thread and I'm stuck--or trying to find a thread that will untangle the mass of yarn, the yarn being the mass of possible projects.

As I've turned the loose bundle of yarn over and over in my mind, several thoughts have come to my mind:

1) a small piece of stitched fabric: perhaps about 5" x 8" sewn from of faded stripes of color pieced together.
The references: a shirt that I remember my mother wearing when I was perhaps 5 or 6. the stripes of wide and colored black, watermelon pink, teal and white. This made a deep impression on me, the stripes etched deeply into my visual memory. the second reference is Joseph's "coat of many colors" a reference from Bereshit (or Genesis). I've always found those simple words to be tremendously evocative.

2) The most obvious thread is the migraine, a condition that is trailing along with menopause for me. It's a provocative rather than evocative subject, something I'd rather not deal with but have to. I feel the way I would if someone said something terribly offensive. I'd want to grab them by the shirt collar and let them know just how offensive their words were. In the same way, I want to grab the migraines (or the vessels in my brain and let them know how infuriated I am by their swelling. What would the form be?