The power of choice
Shae Anthony
Vancouver, BC
Shae Anthony is an Irish and Delaware woman trespassing on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh + Sel̓íl̓witulh lands. She is a practicing artist, art therapist (thesis pending), and art educator. Shae is passionate about fostering creativity in people of all ages and thinks that creativity is the closest thing that we have to magic. Shae believes in solidarity through mutual aid and volunteers with her local open access fridge with the goal of providing easily accessible, free, and healthy food to all community members.
“To be truly visionary we have to root our imagination in our concrete reality while simultaneously imagining possibilities beyond that reality.”
- bell hooks
One of the powerful things about art therapy is it gives people the chance to make a choice. Art is the choices you are able to make along the way, the outcome is the record of those choices.
For many people, and especially for unhoused people, choice is extremely limited or non-existent. You often don’t get to choose where you sleep, what you eat, or what you wear. You are tied to a system that takes a lot of time to navigate. Most shelters are full. You have to leave at 6AM and be back at 1PM to secure a spot. In the shelter, you have to stay awake to keep yourself and your belongings safe. If you are an older adult, living with disabilities, a woman, LGBTQ, Black, Indigenous, or facing domestic violence, these further layers of oppression actively work against you.
At this time, many people are finding themselves in a time of desperation. Sky rocketing rent, rising food costs, lack of healthcare or appropriate supports have many people falling into homelessness and facing a lack of control or choice.
In offering art therapy, therapists support an individual’s ability to choose and access art materials, to sit in a calm space, and to take rest. Despite facing circumstances that people can’t change, when art making, an individual is free to express themselves on their own terms. Under a capitalist society, almost all things become frivolous. Love, community, rest, culture, and art. As art therapists, we must resist disconnection. We must continue to lift people’s spirits and to recognize and celebrate the love, strength, and agency in those while recognizing that they face systems that are near impossible to navigate.
Another key thing that we are taught as art therapists is to encourage and celebrate art-making regardless of outcome. This challenges another concept that capitalism teaches us, that we must be profiting off art or creating art only if it has been deemed “good” in order for it to be an acceptable use of our time. When an individual chooses to depict something that they can’t draw or paint realistically, they are being extremely brave and creative. This pure expression goes against a society that teaches us that we have to go to school or be trained to make art, or otherwise be born with a natural talent. It isn’t true. For those who face being unhoused, they may already face stigma and live with additional challenges or concurrent disorders. These experiences already place individuals on the fringes, living outside of the expectations of our society. Art making is another way to conform or opt-out of what is expected. When art therapists encourage all art expression, we create an atmosphere that is welcoming and open to different ways of being and creating.
At Doctor Peter Centre, in Vancouver, BC, I like to open a box of chalk pastels or pencil crayons and visit tables with the question, “if you could choose one colour today, which one would it be?” My hope with this offer is that it creates a moment of reflection and pleasure for the person who has the power to choose.