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DisArt: Redefining the Construct of Participation
Jennifer Fortuna MS, OTR/L
DisArt, an arts and culture organization based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, provided the cover art for the Spring 2018 issue of the Open Journal of Occupational Therapy (OJOT) (Figure 1). The piece, a somatic sculpture by Petra Kuppers, was featured at the 2015 DisArt Festival in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Kuppers is a Disability culture activist and community performance artist who connects people, both disabled and able-bodied, in public spaces. DisArt’s mission is to increase the participation of Disabled people in our communities through Disability Art exhibitions, cutting edge public events and consultation. In a recent interview, DisArt Co-Founders and Executive Directors, Dr. Christopher Smit, PhD, and Jill Vyn, MSW share how DisArt is redefining the construct of participation for people with and without disabilities.
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The Art and Science of Occupation as Therapy
Jennifer Fortuna
Ashley Woo Lee, an occupational therapy student based in Loma Linda, California, provided the cover art for the Winter 2017 issue of the Open Journal of Occupational Therapy (OJOT) (Figure 1). The piece, titled “Tree of Life” is a “11 x 14” drawing made from mixed medium. As a child living in Korea, drawing was a favorite pastime for Ashley. After her family relocated to the United States, art became Ashley’s primary means for self-expression. When a career in art was not an option, the field of occupational therapy satisfied Ashley’s artistic and scientific interests. In a recent interview, Ashley shared how she uses her talents to help others participate in meaningful occupations.
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Movement Without Boundaries
Jennifer Fortuna MS, OTR/L
Johnson Simon is an artist based in West Palm Beach, Florida. Johnson always wanted to become a dancer. Born with cerebral palsy, physical limitations make it difficult for Johnson to coordinate his body movements. Determined not to let his disability keep him from pursuing his dreams, Johnson decided to study body movement and motion to learn more about what his body could not do. For Johnson, painting is all about self-discovery. Through use of vibrant colors and bold strokes, Johnson’s expressionist paintings evoke movement and motion. Occupational therapy helped Johnson discover his artistic abilities. The occupation of painting has empowered him to move without boundaries.
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Building Bridges Through Meaningful Occupation
Jennifer Fortuna MS, OTR/L
Mary Block, MS, OTR/L is a pediatric occupational therapist and sculptor based in Illinois. Mary currently works in a school-based setting and owns a small private clinic. She founded Sculpture Bridge, an occupation-based program to address the needs of the youth who have outgrown clinic-based services. Occupational therapy and sculpting have been in Mary’s life for years. She works with a variety of mediums and has been commissioned to create sculptures for both public organizations and private homes over the last ten years. When competing paradigms altered Mary’s career path, the field of occupational therapy helped her to shape a new worldview. In uncertain times, it was meaningful occupation that empowered Mary to start over again.
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The Healing Nature of Occupation
Jennifer Fortuna
Moses Kai Hamilton was born in a small beach house on the north shore of Kauai, Hawaii. When a tragic accident left Hamilton paralyzed, he turned to mouth painting for comfort. Participation in a meaningful occupation helped Hamilton find his path in life. Over time, he developed his own techniques, use of color, and a signature impressionist style. Painting nurtured Hamilton’s soul. As a result, his art grew better and sweeter.
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The Reciprocal Relationship Between Art and Occupational Therapy Practice
Jennifer Fortuna
Susan Burwash, Ph.D., OTR/L is an occupational therapy professor and artist based in Washington State. She currently serves as Chair and Professor for the Occupational Therapy Program at Eastern Washington University. To Professor Burwash, lamp work glass bead making is the perfect blend of art and science, spiritual and practical. Professor Burwash believes the relationship between art and occupational therapy practice is reciprocal. Art can be used to explore interests, improve social skills, and build relationships. Creative occupations, such as jewelry making, can help people transform their identities. Art creates balance between traditional medicine and personal medicine—those meaningful activities that give life purpose. Professor Burwash’s personal medicine is making beautiful things that can be given away.
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PuzzleArt Therapy: Connecting the Pieces in Search of Answers
Jennifer Fortuna
Alli Berman has been an artist, educator, author, and lecturer for more than 25 years. Her art can be found in private, corporate, and nonprofit collections around the world. Berman is the creator of PuzzleArt, a series of small abstract paintings that combine to form a modular puzzle. When a stroke impacted Berman’s quality of life, she turned to art for answers. Engagement in a meaningful activity, such as painting, provided her motivation and strength for continued physical and psychological healing. The PuzzleArt concept evolved from a simple exercise that helped Berman to fit all of the missing pieces back together again. PuzzleArt Therapy creates opportunities for people to connect with the arts, their inner-selves, and each other. What started as a simple exercise has evolved into a therapeutic modality helping thousands of children and adults. Today, Berman is on a personal crusade to help as many people as she can. PuzzleArt Therapy is used in vision therapy, occupational therapy, art therapy, and neurorehabilitation centers around the world.
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Creating Environments Through the Art of Occupational Therapy
Lydia Royeen
Dr. Lori Reynolds has an interest in therapeutic gardens and the creation of living spaces that promote well-being for older adults. Dr. Reynolds educates various stakeholders on the benefits of occupational therapy, including landscape architects and senior living administrators. Her advocacy to expand occupational therapy beyond its mainstream roles is infectious. She speaks passionately about her work in helping to create therapeutic gardens and how her role as an occupational therapist offers great perspective in this process. She appreciates the environmental impact on an individual’s health and well-being and practices from a peson-environment- occupation theory.
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Arts of Life: A Place for Artists to Participate and Engage
Lydia Royeen
Arts of Life is an innovative, Chicago-based day program where artists with and without disabilities have the opportunity to participate in artwork. It was created out of an identified need for individuals with a developmental disability to foster community engagement in artistic endeavors. Arts of Life has its foundation in four core values: inspiring artistic expression, building community, promoting self-respect, and developing independence. It bases its programming on these values, which help to maintain a collective environment that promotes artistic freedom for all individuals.
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Portrait of an OT artist: Using Mindfulness to find Life Balance
Lydia Royeen
Lynn Davies, a Canadian based occupational therapist, understands the skill set and practice required to employ a balanced work/play/leisure routine, even for an occupational therapist. Occupational therapists can easily foster this balanced routine for clients, however OT’s may fall short of adopting this balanced routine in their own lives as human beings. Lynn Davies uses art and mindfulness strategies to strive for a meaningful routine. Her work balance as well as being an artist, is an ever-evolving orchestra as she has a passion for both.
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The Style Evolution of Glasses: Acknowledging Well-being for Wearable Medical Device
Lydia L. Royeen
The focus of Peta Bush’s work is to create wearable medical devices that address all qualities of the individual, including physical, mental, emotional, and psychosocial aspects. Peta is completing a practice-based research PhD titled “Therapeutic jewelry: The craft of people-centric devices for wellbeing.” Her passion for creating wearable medical devices that are multi-dimensional stems from her personal experiences, as she has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. In addition, she uses her knowledge of well-being and the biopsychosocial model when creating her wearable medical devices. Peta currently uses technology, such as 3D printing, as one method to fabricate her collection. Her aspirations are for this concept of wearable medical devices to become mainstream, similar to glasses, and to remove the stigma associated with wearable medical devices.
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Providing Compassion through Flow
Lydia Royeen
Meg Kral, MS, OTR/L, CLT, is the cover artist for the Summer 2015 issue of The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy. Her untitled piece of art is an oil painting and is a re-creation of a photograph taken while on vacation. Meg is currently supervisor of outpatient services at Rush University Medical Center. She is lymphedema certified and has a specific interest in breast cancer lymphedema. Art and occupational therapy serve similar purposes for Meg: both provide a sense of flow. She values the outcomes, whether it is a piece of art or improved functional status.
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Self Regulation Through Art and Chocolate
Lydia Royeen
Josh Banks provided the cover art for the spring 2015 issue of The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy. The cover art is titled “Birthday Party” because the piece resembles images involved in a birthday party: multicolored balloons, napkins, cakes, and icing. Josh created the piece using oil crayons on watercolor paper. Josh is sensory seeking and has difficulty using various types of materials, which include crayons, street chalk, and markers. After much experimentation, Josh is able to use nibs, a type of marker that does not have a cap. Josh is able to sit for 5-10 minute periods and participate in his artistic endeavors. His normally bright and charming demeanor suddenly turns to one of concentration and focus on his work. He uses short, intense strokes in his artwork. Vicki, his mother, has noted seasonal undertones in some of Josh’s artwork and has named his pieces of art according to the season.
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Embracing Creativity in Occupational Therapy
Lydia Royeen
Jen Gash, an occupational therapist and creativity coach living in the UK, provided the cover art for the winter 2015 issue of The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy. The picture is titled “Over the Exe.” Jen uses her inspiration of the Kawa River model in this painting. The painting is of her husband and daughter standing where the river meets the sea. This is a metaphoric representation of rejoining the greater collective. In addition, Jen has a passion for occupational therapists to encompass creativity. A core aspect of occupational therapy is the multi-dimensional concept of occupations; it allows for occupational therapists to incorporate creativity into daily practice. Jen’s goal is for occupational therapy to embrace its creative theoretical roots.
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Sculpting the Illness Experience
Molly Bathje
Otto Kamensek provided the cover art for the Fall 2014 issue of the Open Journal of Occupational Therapy. “Glimmer of Hope” is part of Otto’s collection “Shard’s, Bone Deep,” which includes hand-built ceramic sculptures that portray his experiences with a lifelong chronic illness. Engaging in ceramic sculpture helps him process the experiences associated with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis and provides a means to support others experiencing chronic illness.
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A Mosaic of Creativity in Occupational Therapy
Molly Bathje
Martha Branson-Banks, OT, provided the cover art for the summer 2014 issue of the Open Journal of Occupational Therapy. The piece is titled “Garden with thanks to Klimt” and is one of several mosaic art pieces in her collection of works. She created the piece with art glass and resin on an abandoned door. Her use of a repurposed door represents her belief in the capacity for transformation and beauty within each individual she has treated and taught throughout her career. Martha’s work as an occupational therapist, educator, and artist reminds us of the foundational beliefs of the occupational therapy profession, including the benefits of engagement in meaningful and creative activities.
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Technology-Supported Art as a "Way to Participation"
molly bathje
Brianna Vitale provided the painting featured on the cover of the Spring 2014 issue of The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy. Brianna completed the painting, titled “Flamingo,” using a mouth joystick (joust) to draw the image on her computer and an assistive device to translate her computer artwork into the watercolor painting. At 12 years old, Brianna has been living for the past 9 years with tetraplegia, the result of a spinal cord injury (SCI). Through technology and with the support of family, friends, and health care professionals, Brianna energetically engages in a variety of creative, social, and philanthropic activities.
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Creativity in Transitions
Molly Bathje
Professor Sandra Edwards, MA, OTR/L, FOATA, and professor emerita at Western Michigan University, provided the cover art for the winter 2014 issue of The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy. The oil painting, “Silent Witness, Cross Creek” was created over a period of two years. Professor Edwards has participated in many creative and artistic activities throughout her life, which have shaped her practice as an occupational therapist and her experience in life.
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Picturing Life
Molly Bathje
The cover art of the summer 2013 issue of The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy provided by Jonathan Darnall reflects his unique life perspective, current roles, and values. An exploration of Jonathan’s life experience reveals how creative arts, including photography, have positively influenced his life and inform OT practitioners about the benefits of photography as an intervention and an occupation.
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Expressing, Responding, Protecting, and Inspiring through Art
Molly Bathje
Margy Hunter, MS, MA, LLP, OTR/L, created the cover of the Spring 2013 issue of the Open Journal of Occupational Therapy. She created this untitled work as a personal reflection on the impact of war on individuals and society, as well as on the history of the profession of occupational therapy (OT), which began in response to military service members’ needs. Also embedded in the creation of this piece are the restorative benefits of participation in creative arts for OT practitioners who deliver services to patients experiencing profound life changes. Additionally, this article explores the artists’ use of art in OT practice to create occupational environments in her community, and as a tool to support her own occupational functioning.
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Expressing eMotions Through Participation in Painting
Molly Bathje
The cover of the Winter 2013 Open Journal of Occupational Therapy, titled Miles eMOTION, was created by Miles Scharfenberg, an 18-year-old young man with multiple developmental impairments. Miles’ story and his artwork provide a reflection on the ways in which creativity and art can enhance the lives of people with disabilities and their families. Miles’ art exists because of his drive toward engagement and participation in life, but also essential is his mother’s commitment to providing opportunities for him to be creative. The Miles eMOTION series of paintings can inspire occupational therapists, families, caregivers, and people with disabilities to incorporate art making as a part of their occupational profile.
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Art in Occupational Therapy: An Introduction to Occupation and the Artist
Molly Bathje
Open Journal of Occupational Therapy , Volume 1, Issue 1
The “Occupation and the Artist” section of the Open Journal of Occupational Therapy (OJOT) will highlight the use of art in the practice of occupational therapy (OT) and in the occupations of both consumers of OT services and its practitioners. The artwork displayed on the inaugural issue of OJOT, titled “The Road Ahead”, features a painting by Diane Dirette, PhD, OT, and Editor-in-Chief of OJOT. This introductory article explores the presence of art in OT practice from the formation of the profession through it's current state.