The Arts in Psychotherapy 34 (2007) 289–293

Book reviews

Portrait of the Artist as Poet, C.T. Cox, P.O. Heller (Eds.). Magnolia Street Publishers, Chicago, Illinois (2006).165 pp., 34 color illustrations, Paperback, $24.95

For many years, the art therapy profession has vociferously pondered and argued about the “split personality” ofthe art therapist as artist and the artist as art therapist. Can the considerable demands of the art therapy professioncomfortably or uncomfortably live with the considerable demands of the artist? Or does the energy required for makingfine art, dissipate the art therapist’s work? And can one truly be an art therapist if not engaged in active creative workoneself? Many art therapists express guilt about not paying enough attention to their art. This guilt even extends intothe ranks of retired art therapists (Junge & Wadeson, 2005.)

As former director of an art therapy masters program, I know well that art admission standards of the AmericanArt Therapy Association used by most graduate training programs are actually quite minimal and there are very fewof what I would call “artists” who have engaged in art therapy training programs. In my experience, professionally-based artists sometimes find art therapy training unsatisfying and leave to focus on their art. Many artists eschew the“psychologizing” that is the art therapist’s stock and trade and feel it can even destroy their art. Now, with this book,we can add poet to the mix. (I once had a student who discovered and loved psychologist William James. She said hemust have been ADHD, because he was interested in so many things. I cautioned her against pathologizing and statedthat people like James used to be called “A Renaissance man.”)

If one is an arts therapist, as are most contributors, to my mind the crucial question, although hidden, that this bookbrings forward into the light is of the value of creativity in many media and the multiple foci of the artist. That the multi-plicity shown here exists in a time and culture valuing singular endeavor and enthusiasm as central to excellent achieve-ment, personality development, and identity, is nothing short of important, even radical. Can (or should?) one be a goodart therapist, a good artist, a good poet? Can creativity in one medium be generalized to make one proficient in others?

This is a good-looking book on glossy paper with color art plates. Prints of each contributor’s artwork contribute tothe overall sense of this as an art book in which the pictures are worth looking at by themselves. The editors state thatthe publication of the book has been partially financed through charitable contributions to the National Association forPoetry Therapy Foundation and that any profit from sales of the first edition will be given to the foundation to supportits work in the creative arts therapies (Cox & Heller, 2006.)

A list of two art therapy groups and a number of contributing individuals follows. (Some of these names I recognizedas art therapists.) In these days when the publishing world is undergoing a major change with financing tight, this methodof publishing through contributions is an interesting innovation and may be indicative of future works to come. In apreface, Gene D. Cohen, Director of the Center on Aging, Health & Humanities at George Washington University,writes: “Creativity is perhaps the most defining aspect of the human condition, and arguably its most revitalizing”(Cohen in Cox & Heller, 2006.)

One editor of the book is an art therapist and the other is a poetry therapist. Both are women and the book is dedicatedto their mothers. In their introduction, the editors state:

As expressive therapists, we are curious about artistic process.

We wonder what makes a creative person translate ideas and feelings into this or that art form. Why a poem here,and a painting there? We wanted to create a visually dynamic and transformative book that would explore theseissues (Cox & Heller, 2006, p. iv.)

0197-4556/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Submissions were solicited, through a professional newsletter of poetry written by visual artists, and subjected toblind review. Thirty-four visual artists and their poetry were selected for the book. For each contributor, there is aphoto, an introduction primarily comprising history and education, a short essay by the artist about her/his process,a full-color reproduction of a piece of artwork, and finally, one or more poems. A contributor, Carole Kunkle-Miller,writes of “the twin siblings of creativity, art and poetry” (Kunkle-Miller in Cox & Heller, 2006, p. 97.)

For the most part, contributors to the book are art therapists or creative arts therapists. Out of 34, 27 are therapists.Twenty-five have art therapy degrees at the masters level. Many graduated from the art therapy masters program atGeorge Washington University (where one of the editors was Assistant Director) and most are easterners. This givesthe book a particular perspective which is not acknowledged. Another unacknowledged reality is that this is really nota book about artists, but about the “other arts” of arts therapists.

In Portrait of the Artist as Poet, we encounter thoughtful, deep, and technically competent to excellent artwork.Although I would like to have dates on the presented paintings, it is clear that artwork of these contributors overall isinteresting and, at times, compelling. (Mari Marks Fleming’s artwork is an example of the best, and I particularly likedthe art by Baker, Di Bella, Locke, and Senstrom.) Many of these contributors have had a good deal of education in art,often through the terminal M.F.A. degree. This shows. The poetry is another matter.

Words and visual imagery are quite different and many think they spring from different parts of the brain, demandingdifferent skills. To assume they might be similar and if one is “creative” in one art form, they can branch into others,in my view, is a mistake. All too often, this assumption results in an intellectualizing of creativity and a skimmingover a pleasant “creative” surface but does not delve into the deeper, more specific, and very important differencesof the media. This skimming-the-surface quality seems predominantly true in the contributor’s essays about theirprocess.

That the visual artists of the book create poetry for their own enjoyment and creative expansion is to be commended.That a book is devoted in part to their poetry, is, in my opinion, too bad. Few, if any, competent poets have dabbled inother arts or become therapists (exceptions are William Blake, e.e. cummings, and Kenneth Patchen.) To create poetryis a demanding business. As I remember, poet and writer Archibald MacLeish said “A poem should not mean but be”(MacLeish in Williams, 1952.) Unfortunately, little of the poetry in this book is about “being.” It does not offer thepunch, nor spear one’s heart and soul with the precise and surprising language central to good poetry. Unlike theirextensive art training, few contributors have had any specific training in writing or poetry writing. Are we to assumethat training and education in this area is not necessary?

The content of much of the poetry in this book is the author’s relationship to the natural world. Additionally, thereare some poems on children and many on the female writer’s (often conflicted) relationship with her mother. (As themother of a grown daughter, I was particularly interested in these.) There are a few poems on women’s suppression andrepression. I enjoyed Fleming’s “From the book about hiding,” Kaplan’s “How to celebrate the new year,” Senstrom’s“Equinox” and Williams’ “Talk to me about revision.”

Another unacknowledged reality is that the contributors to this book are predominantly women, as is the gendermakeup of creative arts professions. Of the 34 total creators, 30 are women. That women create is not news. But eventoday the work of creative women may be more difficult to find than it should be. In Ghiselin’s (1952) classic book TheCreative Process, of the 13 creators, only one was a woman—Mary Wigman, a dancer. When the book was reprintedin 1985, one woman was added—Gertrude Stein. In 1989, Wallace and Gruber published their cognitive case studies,Creative People at Work. There are three women (of 12), two writers and a painter. Gardner’s 1993 Creating Minds,containing case histories of seven creators includes only one woman—Martha Graham, another dancer. Books aboutwomen tend to have been “ghettoized” in books by and about women and predominantly, I am afraid, for women. Anexample is Ruddick and Daniels’ 1977 book, Working it Out, 23 Women Writers, Artists, Scientists and Scholars TalkAbout Their Lives and Work. A recent letter in the New York Times Magazine speaks to the plight even today of womenartists:

There are thousands of women artists equally as good [as Kiki Smith] whose work will never see the light ofday. A quick look at any gallery roster will show approximately one woman to 12 men. The same is true for theart museums and art-history books (Blizard, 2006.)

Another book similar Portrait of the Artist as Poet was published in 2004 and edited by two men (Moon &Schoenholtz, 2004) with two additional men as “jury.” Frankly acknowledged as the work of art therapists, it focusedon poetry and had no color prints of contributor’s art. It was called Word Pictures: The Poetry and Art of Art Therapists.

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There is much pleasure to be found in Portrait of the Artist as Poet, if one wants a not-too-demanding explorationof visual art, poetry and creativity. But I wish it could have “come out of the closet” and openly existed, in its plumageand identity. The old adage “You can’t judge a book by its cover” may be true. But I believe readers have a right toknow what they are getting.

References

Blizard, P. (2006, November 12). The intuitionist. New York Times Magazine.Cohen, G. (2006). Creativity expressed through portrait and poetry. In C. Cox & P. Heller (Eds.), Portrait of the artist as poet. Chicago, IL: Magnolia

Street Publishers.Cox, C., & Heller, P. (Eds.). (2006). Portrait of the artist as poet. Chicago, IL: Magnolia Street Publishers.Gardner, H. (1993). Creating minds. New York: Basic Books.Ghiselin, B. (Ed.). (1952). The creative process: A symposium. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.Ghiselin, B. (Ed.). (1985). The creative process: Reflections on the invention in the arts and sciences. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of

California Press.Junge, M., & Wadeson, H. (2005). The wit and wisdom of the retired art therapist. A research study presented at the meetings of the American Art

Therapy Association, Atlanta, GA.Kunkle-Miller, C. (2006). In C. Cox & P. Heller (Eds.), Portrait of the artist as poet. Chicago, IL: Magnolia Street Publishers.MacLeish, A. (1952). Ars poetica. In O. Williams (Ed.), A little treasury of modern poetry. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.Moon, B., & Schoenholtz, R. (Eds.). (2004). Word pictures: The poetry and art of art therapists. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.Ruddick, S., & Daniels, P. (Eds.). (1977). Working it out, 23 women writers, artist, scientists and scholars talk about their lives and work. New

York: Pantheon Books.Wallace, D., & Gruber, H. (Eds.). (1989). Creative people at work. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Professor EmeritaMaxine Borowsky Junge, PhD, LCSW, ATR-BC, HLM a,b

a Loyola Marymount University, United States

b Goddard College and Antioch University, Seattle, United States1

E-mail address: Mbjunge@whidbey.net1 Formerly, Professor.

doi: 10.1016/j.aip.2007.04.001

The Expressive Body in Life, Art and Therapy: Working with Movement, Metaphor, and Meaning, DariaHalprin. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (2005). 248 pp., $29.95

Daria Halprin prefaces her book by informing the reader that she is the daughter of Anna Halprin. Anna Hal-prin, now in her 80s, is a seminal figure in the world of dance, famous for her experimental works that eventuallycoalesced into the life-art process she now uses at her training institute in Kentfield, California. Daria Halprin co-founded the Tamalpa Institute with Anna Halprin in 1978. Daria Halprin’s experiences teaching at the TamalpaInstitute laid the foundation from which she developed and codified her approach to Movement-Based ExpressiveArts Therapy. In her book, Halprin shares with the reader the life experiences that inspired her work. Halprin beganas a dancer studying under the tutelage of her mother during the 1950s and 1960s. Halprin informs the readerthat the environment she grew up in, although exciting and intellectually stimulating, was also quite tumultuous.At one point in her life, Halprin developed a panic disorder that eventually led to her seeking therapy. While intherapy for the affliction, Halprin began experimenting with dance as a means toward healing and transformation.Through her life experiences, dance training, and education in psychology, Halprin gradually developed an inte-grative method of expressive arts therapy designed to promote intrapsychic and interpersonal healing, growth, andchange.

Halprin’s book is divided into four sections, The Introduction; Roots to Cross-Pollination; The Practice; and Con-clusion. Each section contains one to five brief chapters. In her introduction, Halprin explains the basic concepts ofmovement-based expressive arts therapy and the life events that led to its formulation. In Part 2: Roots to Cross-Pollination her focus shifts to a historical overview of the psychological, artistic, and body/mind trends that most