Dear david
Yes I did study drawings of many cultures; physical, social and mental
cultures. I collected drawings myself and I collected books with
examples.
In the introduction of my dissertation I write:
I worked as an independent creative art therapist with families with
children suffering from social, developmental and psychiatric problems
like autism, neglect, sexual abuse, sensory deprivations, learning
disorders, brain damage and cerebral palsy. My personal love for drawing
encouraged me to use this medium more than any other medium.
I collected around 1000 drawings of children from the Netherlands, East
and West Germany, Finland, Aruba, Zaire, former Yugoslavia, Austria,
Switzerland, New Zealand, Africa and Japan. Added to this, I collected
over 2000 drawings of clients engaged in art therapy in the Netherlands,
East and West Germany, Finland, former Yugoslavia, Belgium and England.
This started my interest in the development of drawing and urged me to
read what other professionals had to say about this subject (e.g.,
Plokker, 1960; Itten, 1963; Wills, 1968; de Nobel, 1968; Visser and
Bolten, 1969; Kellogg, 1970; Hauschka-Stavenhagen, 1971; Arnheim, 1974;
Frings Keyes, 1975; Kliphuis, 1976; Strauß, 1978). During this period,
it came to my mind that drawings of patients were in some respects
similar to and in other respects dissimilar from drawings made by
children.
Gradually, it occurred to me that the first drawing activities, usually
referred to as scribbles, did not receive a great deal of attention. A
lot had been written about the representational development of drawing,
but hardly anything on the pre-representational aspects. If scribbling
was mentioned at all, it was usually interpreted to be of fleeting
interest. Moreover, almost all research on the development of drawing
started around the age of two years, hardly anything was known about the
drawing-related activities before that age. While I was engaged in the
development of drawing, I started to realise that there was a relation
between early motor movements, drawing traces, and interaction
structures, but I was not able to articulate this relation explicitly.
One important insight occurred to me. If drawings were to be of any use
in creative art therapy, we badly needed a notation system of drawing
traces that were void of semantic content and interpretation.
I found Claire Golomb: "The Child's Creation of a Pictorial World.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992." the best book about
multi cultural research on children's drawing development.
Marijke
-----Original Message-----
From: The UK drawing research network mailing list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David Haley
Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2005 12:48 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: 050126 Why draw? About 'formal problem'
Dear Marijke
Interesting notion of 'formal' and I note that other contributors are
merging, connecting and stretching the relationship with meanings of
'form'. However, with regard to your 'formal graphic language', did
this include studies of different cultures?
David
On 27 Jan 2005, at 00:52, Marijke Rutten-Saris wrote:
> About 'formal problem'
> Clarity of words has been my focus for decads. Being a creative art
> therapist I had a formal problem; I was badly in need for words to
> describe drawing in formal visual language before I could/wanted
> denotate the drawing of patients with meanings relevant to their
> inter/personal growth.
> A formal opposite problem for me means that it is a problem that is
> tacled from the other start/end compared with a personal problem.
> Because drawing-movement is perse also body-movement too, there exist
a
> direct relation between the development of a person and the types of
> marks left on a surface.
> In a PhD research with took me almost 10 years of part-time study, I
> became finally able to notate drawing in a reliable way with the
common
> worldwide graphic development (pure formal notation) from literally 0
> till 5 year old children. This resulted in a formal graphic language
as
> a reliable basis for denotation and reflection for therapeutic
> treatment.
> You can compare this approach with the notes for music and the Laban
> notation for dance. For a bit more, visit my website by clicking the
UK
> flag/EBL/ "Has visual a reliable notation system?", and under
RS-index.
>
> Marijke
>
>
> Dr. Marijke Rutten-Saris
> SRCT Creative Art Therapist/Researcher/LVSB Supervisor
>
> EBL Arts Therapy Centre
> Weezenhof 3406
> 6536 GS, Nijmegen
> The Netherlands
> [log in to unmask]
> www.eblcentre.com
> tel: +31(024)3441396
>
>
>
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