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Pastels On The Plaza 2021
As founder of the Humboldt Veterans Clay Group, I am a veteran artist with an education in behavioral science, art education, and social work. I am dedicating my life to providing a creative space for community wellness. I have extensive life experience in construction and wood working, electronics, and music instrument building and repair. I am an avid mushroom enthusiast who forages in the Humboldt County forests and dunes regularly. My experience in the ceramics arts and my connections in the Humboldt County community led to the founding the Humboldt Veterans Clay Sessions at the College of the Redwoods and the Humboldt Veterans Clay Group, a Dream Maker Project of the Ink People Center for the Arts
"I have found healing in my own life through art, and particularly ceramics. Clay, and the community that surrounds it, have taught me much about myself, and my relationships and attachments. Working with clay has reduced my suffering and increased my resilience.
The healing that I have found in clay has been life changing.
My work focuses on the importance of community in conjunction with creative activity. My goal is to provide space for others to find their own healing through community-based creative expression."
Someone's Been Working Late
My Academic Journey
As a 62 year-old who suffers from PTSD and severe chronic pain, I have searched for years for ways to reduce the suffering of trauma and physical pain. I began college for the first time only eight years ago as a way to regain my independence from disability. Having begun my path toward healing three years earlier with the creation of a small non-profit organization intent on feeding and outfitting homeless persons in Stanislaus County, I naturally gravitated toward healing disciplines in my academic journey.
Since addiction is often a key component of PTSD and chronic pain, I began with a certificate in Addiction Studies. After achieving that certificate, I continued with an AA in Behavioral Science. Interspersed in these studies were classes in ceramic arts. It was while working with clay that I began to find healing for myself and others around me in the ceramics lab. I began to focus my studies on the healing effects of clay work and other implicit modalities. When searching the literature, I found much very little information relating to the informal, vs formal, application of creative modalities for healing. After transferring to Cal Poly Humboldt, I began in the Social Work department and continued my studies with a focus on informal applications of creative modalities. I then transferred into the Interdisciplinary Degree Program where I have completed a degree tailored to my passion for creative expression and healing.
Restroom in "The Laundry." Cal Poly Humboldt Ceramic Arts Lab
Community-based creative modalities for human wellness.
My coursework in addiction studies, behavioral science, ceramic arts, social work, and art education combine with my extensive life experience to form an interdisciplinary lens through which I understand PTSD, pain, and healing. Community-based creative modalities take place outside of the formal art therapy or psycho-therapeutic paradigm. Community-based creative modalities have been shown to foster profound relief and can be facilitated by a wider range of practitioners than formal therapy. My studies point to the normalization of informal creative modalities for wellness within the wider therapeutic arena, with normalization leading to increased opportunities for program funding and sustainability.
"There are honeys so bitter no one would willingly choose to take them. The Clay takes them: Honey of weariness, honey of vanity, honey of cruelty, fear." Jane Hirshfield
Addiction, PTSD, and Chronic Pain:
Addiction, PTSD, and Chronic Pain are intimately intertwined. These issues represent a majority of disabling behavioral and physical health disorders and comorbidities facing Americans today. A majority of those who suffer from PTSD also experience chronic pain, and addiction is a major component of both PTSD and chronic pain. My education in Addiction Studies and Behavioral Science has given me a wide view of how these three elements arise and manifest over time in the individual as well as family and social systems, and special populations. My studies in Pharmacology and Physiology of Addiction supply the knowledge to understand the biological processes at work regarding trauma, pain, and addictions.
My studies in this field include Substance Abuse Treatment and Ethics which provide knowledge and skills in accepted counseling techniques, as well as ethical frameworks from which to apply healing modalities in the community. My studies in Counseling Skills provide knowledge of specific practices related to substance abuse and therapeutic counseling practices. Biological Psychology has given me a broad perspective from which to view human behavior. This perspective allows me to see the suffering due to PTSD, Chronic Pain, and Addiction through a blame-free, and forgiving lens, which is essential to the facilitation of community-based creative practices for healing.
Joe And Rose at The Wheel
Community Building and Engagement:
Community building and engagement require knowledge of human behavior, especially with respect to social dynamics. Here, my studies in Behavioral Science, family systems, and special populations give me the knowledge and skills to work with specific communities such as veterans and rural/indigenous groups. Studies in social work methods, human behavior, and research have prepared me for work with individuals and groups, as well as with agencies and the ethical frameworks that surround them, including theoretical background in how communities and individuals interact and evolve, and the mechanisms of social impact on human behavior while providing knowledge and skills to analyze and interpret data to develop successful programming.
Creativity and Healing with Clay
Having found healing for myself and witnessed it in others who work with clay, I began focusing my studies and research on the healing effects of clay work and other implicit modalities. I studied ceramics alongside behavioral science in order to integrate the knowledge I had gained in each field as it relates to healing modalities. Wheel throwing ceramics teaches a particular set of skills relating to centering, mindfulness, and bilateral manipulation of the clay in ways that facilitate integration of various networks of the brain to create novel implicit memories that increase resilience. During independent studies in ceramics, I focused on mindfulness and the healing properties of clay work on myself and my own traumas and pain. Having found profound relief, I continued my studies in clay with experimental ceramics where I learned the skills related to research and development of mold making techniques in a self-directed program. my studies in art education focused on socially-engaged art dealing with education, community engaged art, and art in service. My own path has given me a broad understanding of ceramics and art education that will enable me to lead others down the path to healing through Clay work.
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