AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
ART THERAPY AS A TOOL OF PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT IN UNIVERSITY EDUCATION –
FRIDA KAHLO IN THE STUDENTS‘ WRITTEN AND VISUAL REFLECTIONS
a
JANKA SATKOVÁ
Department of Creative Arts and Art Education, Faculty of
Education in Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra
Dražovská cesta 4, 949 74 Nitra, Slovakia
email:
a
jsatkova@ukf.sk
This work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under the
contract No. APVV-15-0368.
Abstract: The art works of the famous artist Frida Kahlo could be a base for creation
of reflections made by university students – the future teachers. This way our work
with art had the principles of art therapy, because the students could express
themselves, their inner world with its important difficult or painful messages. Beside
it, the future teachers of fine art education can develop creativity and critical thinking.
The students reflections were more or less intimate and personal, and we analyzed
them by qualitative content analysis.
Keywords: Fine arts, Education, Future teacher, Creativity, Critical thinking,
Reflection.
1 Introduction
At the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, we
prepare the future teachers of fine arts education for the second
degree of primary schools, for high schools and for the fine arts
sections of art schools. An important part of our education is
also work with the personalities of the students in area of their
personal development. This time, emphasis is on critical thinking
and creativity. To deal with fine arts itself, learning about lives
of the artists and interpretative practical work with the art works,
are perfect ways, how to develop creative and critical thinking,
important in human´s life, the more in preparing of the future
teachers, which will have a big impact on their future pupils and
students.
Through practical/visual interpretation of art works, our
students learn how to critically think about them and how to
express their opinions. Usually, after familiarization with the
specific artist, at first they have to say and write what they like
or dont like about the artist. Then they make the visual and
written reflections and listen to the opinions of their classmates
about the art works.
2 Theory
The principles of art therapy are already included more or less in
our current educational system, for example in the lessons of fine
arts education in the schools. Although art therapy has its own
difficulties, there are also many benefits of it.
Šicková (2008) defines art therapy as planned influencing of
attitudes and behavior through art and through techniques
derived from art, with aim of treatment or alleviation of disease,
and an integration or enrichment of personality. The aim of art
therapy is to rebuild disrupted natural disposition of person -
creativity, spontaneity, ability to communicate with oneself, with
others, with the environment, understanding of life in its context
and meaningful living. There are individual and social objectives
of art therapy, individual and group work with people, relaxation
and therapeutic groups/aims of group, receptive and productive
art therapy (perception and creation).
We implemented some of the art therapy principles into our
lessons. An important part of a group creative work is discussion
and the feedback. However, no one should be forcing to speak
about own work. Finally, in group work, it is appropriate to
reflect the experienced moments, also negative feelings, but
mainly to share and reinforce the positive feelings. The common
creation helps the members of the group to inspire each other, to
develop communication and relationships within the group. It is
believed that the experience of the group creation can be carried
over into everyday life. In the beginning of the meeting, the
group would agreed about some rules. The rules should evoke an
atmosphere of trust, for example "Let every person speak.
Everyone has the right to be heard. Each work will be accepted".
Our teaching of art therapy consists from two parts: passive –
perceiving and active – creation part. We teach these two sides
of art therapy at the didactic disciplines „Alternative Fine Arts
Education“ and „Basis of Art Therapy and Artephiletics“ and
both subjects are part of the study programe „Teaching of Fine
Arts in Combination“.
3 Research
Aim of the study
To discover, how our students react on the Frida Kahlo ´s art
work, and how we can use this way for personal development of
the students in area critical thinking and creativity.
Hypotheses
According to the principles of qualitative research, we don´t
have any hypotheses.
Research plan
In February 2018, we get 13 written and 17 visual reflections
from the 17 students, 2 male and 15 female.
Methods
The methods of data collection were the written reflections from
the students. Processing method was a qualitative content
analysis of the written students' reflections.
Material
During the lesson, we looked at the Frida Kahlo's photos and
artworks in a book about her. Some of the students even saw a
movie about her life and told us what they think abaout a movie
and what form her life the remembered form the movie. After
the introductions, the creative part of the lesson started. All
students said and wrote their opinions about Frida Kahlo‘s
artworks and then created their own paintings, inspired by her
(the examples of the art works are the pictures 1 – 3). According
to our experiences, the students consider this task as quite
difficult. They can easily say if they like or don‘t like something,
but they had trouble to express why, but we insisted on the task.
Even after more time for thinking, some of the students were
unable to substantiate their attitude. The next task was also quite
difficult. We asked the students to create the artistic reflections
of her art by water colours, but we asked them to react not only
at the visual form of her art works, but to find something
common between themselves and the artist. According to the art
therapy rules, we pointed out the need for borders of intimacy,
which the students should make themselves. Then, they started
to create their paintings, but at first, they wrote down their
spoken opinions and explanations.
4 Research results
In the students‘ written reflections, we can see a whole scale of
the opinions – from „I like it very much“, through „it is not
interesting for me“, to „I dont like it“. We consider this wide of
evaluation as the proof of their authenticity and we are sure they
did not respond how they thought they should.
Student's written reflections of the Frida Kahlo's artworks:
I'm confused from the work of Frida Kahlo and I have mixed
feelings. I admire her for her courage in creation, and for the
expression, which she was able to give into her work.
The same time I like and I do not like Frida Kahlo's creation. I
like some of her paintings, but I think some are disgusting, for
example the pictures of the born fetus (baby), or the corset. I
liked the picture where she was twice, showing a disparity, but
my impressions were very pleasant.
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