Adult coloring as art therapy

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trek17

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Anyone have experience in this area? I was thinking about approaching our pastor to set up a time and place to incorporate Catholic spirituality into art therapy. My initial ideas are to follow a liturgical pattern. Begin with a short prayer, then play some sacred music while participants begin to work on their art, which could be as simple as coloring with pencils, crayons, pens, charcoals. I thought then different participants might read the readings from the daily Mass, then allow time for reflection, and a final song, all while coloring. Coloring has been statistically shown to have positive effects on stress levels and seems ideal for helping to ease into prayer when God seems distant.

Thoughts? Anyone done this? Feedback desired!
 
trek17 said:
Anyone have experience in this area? I was thinking about approaching our pastor to set up a time and place to incorporate Catholic spirituality into art therapy. My initial ideas are to follow a liturgical pattern. Begin with a short prayer, then play some sacred music while participants begin to work on their art, which could be as simple as coloring with pencils, crayons, pens, charcoals. I thought then different participants might read the readings from the daily Mass, then allow time for reflection, and a final song, all while coloring. Coloring has been statistically shown to have positive effects on stress levels and seems ideal for helping to ease into prayer when God seems distant.

Thoughts? Anyone done this? Feedback desired!
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It may be helpful for some people. It seems adult coloring books are everywhere lately.

Personally I hate coloring. Even as a child I hated to color. I used to flip my paper over at school to draw something intead, and since I would get in trouble with my teachers for doing that, it made me hate coloring even more.
 
I love coloring, and even more, creating art.

Paraclete Press ha sa great assortment of CAtholic coloring resources
I bought their Advent book for all my catechists last year.
 
There’s also a book entitled “Making Crosses” which combines making a cross out of found natural elements, with journaling. Our Ladies Faith Formation found that really something.
We used twisted tree branches, found bits of copper, one woman even made a cross out of homemade baked bread. Wan wonderful. Each week, there was something new to contemplate in their creations.
 
If you are comfortable sharing more details and/or suggestions, would you PM me?
 
pianistclare said:
There’s also a book entitled “Making Crosses” which combines making a cross out of found natural elements, with journaling. Our Ladies Faith Formation found that really something.
We used twisted tree branches, found bits of copper, one woman even made a cross out of homemade baked bread. Wan wonderful. Each week, there was something new to contemplate in their creations.
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Now THAT sounds creative & interesting! 👍

A local woman paints crosses on small rocks & gives them away or leaves them in places for people to find. They are beautiful! I have 6 or 7 that she gave me.
 
Sounds like a great idea! 👍
We have a parishioner who did something similar except she teaches a fitness class that has the benefits of yoga (the tranquility) , but instead incorporates the Peace of Christ through stretches, a liturgical pattern, prayer, and meditation. No new age stuff here! 🙂
I will pray for a successful meeting with your pastor!
Peace
 
trek17 said:
Anyone have experience in this area? I was thinking about approaching our pastor to set up a time and place to incorporate Catholic spirituality into art therapy. My initial ideas are to follow a liturgical pattern. Begin with a short prayer, then play some sacred music while participants begin to work on their art, which could be as simple as coloring with pencils, crayons, pens, charcoals. I thought then different participants might read the readings from the daily Mass, then allow time for reflection, and a final song, all while coloring. Coloring has been statistically shown to have positive effects on stress levels and seems ideal for helping to ease into prayer when God seems distant.

Thoughts? Anyone done this? Feedback desired!
Click to expand...
I think it’s a very good idea. I do have one suggestion. Good lighting is important to help avoid eye strain, but regular incandescent, cf, or led lights will change the hue of some colors quite a lot. There are several brands of lights made for artists and crafters that keep hues closer to what they are in daylight. (Ottlight is one brand and they can usually be bought with a coupon at Jo-Ann Fabrics.)

It’s not a huge deal, but it’s nice to be able to judge colors accurately inside a building by using these types of artists’ lights.
 
I have no experience in the area but I think it’s a wonderful idea!~ Hope it works out and goes well.

Mary.
 
I don’t have any experience with art therapy, either in or out of a church setting, but one thing I would take into account would be, “Who is my target audience?” ie, who am I trying to reach? I’d consult with some of those people, to see what their needs were, to help gauge interest in my program, or to build it to be attractive to them.

However, on the subject of “art + spirituality”, I travel frequently to a (not-Catholic) church that periodically hosts icon workshops. Not necessarily one of these, but just to give an idea. When there’s not a workshop going on, a lot of these people will meet and work on personal projects. The ones we do for the workshops are in egg tempera-- there are other people at other churches who do similar things, but in acrylics. Since I’m not local, I don’t have a good grasp of all the local church art things going on, and who’s part of what group, and how the groups overlap, but my impression these casual gatherings fluctuate between “structured” and “personal”.

So, this sort of thing can be very intense, and it’s appealing because of “learning about art”-- learning how to build egg tempera (or acrylic gouache) into layers to achieve an artistic effect; and appealing because of “spirituality”-- growing a connection with who you’re trying to depict, and trying to be in a constant state of prayer while you’re doing it; and appealing because of “history”-- learning how to see/read/interpret iconography, and the meaningfulness and symbolism of line and color and such. And at the end, you have a really beautiful piece of art, which is much more than art, because you’ve put yourself, flaws and all, out into your piece for everyone to see.
 
We use religious adult coloring books in our Senior Parishioners Leisure Group. One very favorite one is called “Mary’s Garden”. It is very relaxing & therapeutic. Both Autom & Paulist Press has them in stock.

In addition to adults; religious coloring books are great for Pre K, K & CCD students.
 
God recently gave me some markers, color crayons, and construction paper. I have been away from my art for some time…Once I got these supplies I said, well, they are easy to use, cheap, and I dont have to worry if I mess up and they clean up easy. SO bam! Ive been doing art again!!! So, I recommend using cheap stuff so there is no worry or fuss.
 
I was in the hospital for depression and this was a popular activity for all of us. While the pictures weren’t spiritually oriented, the activity gave a particular focus and was very relaxing. I bought several for home here and use them often.
 
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