Art Alchemy: about my history

A decade ago I put together some creative workshops, using relaxation techniques, music, writing and art to foster people’s creativity. I found it was a catalyst for people to reflect deeply upon their lives and so I decided to study psychology. This provided me the understanding  in order for me to create a safe sanctuary for others.

Now I run creative workshops which offer the option of simple relaxation through creativity or more in-depth reflection. I also facilitate individuals with their personal growth through visual journaling and counselling.   

Art Alchemy: finding your inner gold.
Photo taken by Siobhan Noffke. You can see her work here at

Counselling: of the bereaved

Size 12 X 12 cm, Chalk pastel, by Morag Noffke 18.03.09
You can read about the explanation of this drawing here

Last Wednesday I went to a seminar run by Nechama. Counsellors from all different walks of life were invited. “It is a volunteer-based organisation which provides emotional support and counselling for persons of the Jewish faith who have suffered a bereavement or loss. It provides a nurturing and caring environment for comfort and growth. Through care and compassion, they support the bereaved and their families through the grief process.”  See Link Nechama

The theme of the seminar was: I am with him in his sorrow.

As the loss of family and friends is all around us all of the time I think it is good to be equipped to comfort others.  People are unique and come from different backgrounds. The more one learns about other cultures, grieving, rituals and practices the easier it will be to convey understanding and empathy.

I learnt new things and I feel enriched, refreshed and encouraged for going. What I like the most when I go to a seminar is when I feel personally and deeply touched by what the speakers have conveyed.  Here is a poem I wrote in response afterwards…

The Nechama of the soul
"I am with him in his sorrow."
This is an inner strength
rooted in the Divine.
We know we will not be consumed
like the burning bush…
to comfort means to be
with them
in their sorrow
accepting them on their journey.

(Like the counsellor does: the place to express feelings)

the child’s grief is a silent grief
and their actions speak louder
than words
the girl who knew who her dad was
just couldn’t understand why
he went away
While she tried to
make sense as a six year old might
with questions and tears and tantrums
her mother became unintentionally unavailable
and her child’s loss went ‘unnoticed’
the ripple effect
reached across the years
to meet the older grief.
Older grief is gentler
sudden-ness of tears
simultaneous attachment

(And that’s where the counsellor comes in: the place to express feelings now)

The whole world died:
father, mother
and herself too
were never the same.
feelings of shame
and foolishness were fostered
because she asked her mother 

where her father was
over and over again…
of course the parent gets sick of hearing the question
and thinks that expressing the frustration and the anger are bad
the parent worries 

that the child is naughty
how long?
They ask
will it be bad?
will it feel bad?

(And here is where the counsellor comes in: the place for the child to express feelings now and to remember that…)

when a loved one dies
the relationship will continue
in one’s life
always
one will feel the tug on the soul
like a kite
and will engage with it
The ways to connect
are to talk about them, 

remembering their images
be observant of them,
re-uniting with their words
Don’t let them fade away
Allow them to live on
in one’s memory
one’s creativity
and the fabric of one’s life

Size 30 X 24 cm, Oil Pastel,  by Morag Noffke 03.03.09
You can read about the explanation of the drawing here

We all loose loved ones and at times we need someone to listen to us. It is good to know that we can ask for the help we need.

Art Facilitation 02.9 (termination)

This is a photo taken during an adult group I ran last year.
Here people have been grouped together to share a page by
contributing  to the frame.

Communal drawings

A nice way of ending of a series of workshops or sessions is to do a communal drawing. Sometimes I get the group to do one drawing together; other times I get them to share a page.

This is my last post of this facilitation series and it is about saying good bye. The theme of the day was the ‘umbrella’ of love.  I am not going to explain how to draw umbrellas as I assume everybody knows how already. The aim of this session was about the termination of the series. I wanted to end off in a quiet manner and to remind them of the care they could ‘ask for’ in future: so I got them thinking about how, just as an umbrella protects from the sun and rain (‘storms’ of life), kind and loving adults (parents, teachers & other adults who care) can protect them from difficulties and care for them. 

They created a shared or communal drawing: part individual, part group which reminds them of their group work.

Here are two examples. As I would like their identities to remain anonymous I have had to crop the frames where the names were.

Art Alchemy

What is Art Alchemy?

Finding your inner gold through an art process infused with personal growth.

Alchemy originally refers to a medieval forerunner of chemistry 

which was concerned with the attempts to convert common metals into gold. 

I believe we all have the ‘gold’ deep within us. 

Often we feel we can’t find our gold.

Through the practice of creativity and art 

we can tap into unexpressed territory and embark on a personal journey. 

It is the process of art-making which matters, not the product. 

Through processing we discover our gold.  

Art alchemy is therefor about finding your inner gold.

Art Alchemy: finding your inner gold.
Photo taken by Siobhan Noffke. You can see her work here at

Everyday Opinion: legacy, the good and the bad.

Legacy, the Good and the Bad by Morag Noffke.

You might have wondered why I said, “My legacy is emotional, physical and psycho-spiritual” if you read about me in my profile. A legacy is either: money or property left in a will or something handed down by a predecessor to us. Our parents pass on their behaviours, habits, and family patterns. Some things are continually passed from one generation to the next. And as parents we will pass them on too. We accept these things without much thought.  

Sometimes we only think about the negative things that we endured and which were passed down. My question is: “what about the good things which you have inherited?” and “What are these good things?” My mother and father were both artistic, enjoying creativity and crafts. These are some examples passed onto others which are of value: love of words, love of knowledge, abilities and talents, values, beliefs, love and affection etc. It is encouraging, enlightening, insightful, giving direction and appreciation for oneself, to think of the legacy.

Think about the things you have inherited. Let go of the negative and hold onto the good. This is like eating an apple which has a rotten spot. You have a choice: either you can throw the apple away, missing out on the sweetness it has to offer you; you can eat the bad spot as well, running the risk of the rottenness upset you or you can spit the rottenness out and eat the rest.

Your legacy is just like that. You need to identify the rottenness, spit it out and eat the sweetness passed down to you. What have you inherited? What do you choose to pass on to your children?

This poem is by an Irish poet born just after the civil war was terminated (1923). Guns were part of his legacy; as was the struggle of the civil war of which his parents were part. It is difficult to break away from the cultural effects and influences which become ones legacy too.    

Son of a Gun by Padriac Fiacc (1924b)

Between the year of the slump and the sell out, I
The third child, am the first born alive…

My father is a Free Stater ‘Cavan Buck’.
My mother is a Belfast Factory worker. Both

Carry guns, and the grandmother with a gun
In her apron, making the military wipe

Their boots before they rape the house. (These
Civil wars are only ever over on paper!)

Armed police are still raping my dreams
Thump-thud, Thump-thud. I go on mightmaring

Dear father running. There is a bull
In the field. Is father, am I, running away

From the bull to it? Is this the reason why
I steal
time, things, places, people?

Bar-man father, sleeping with a gun under
Your pillow, does the gun help you that much
I wonder

For the gun has made you all only the one
in of sex with me the two sexed son (or three

Or none?) you bequeathed the gun to
still cannot make it so. I can

Never become your he-man: shot
Down born as I was, sure I thought

And thought and thought but blood ran… 

Counselling can help identify your legacy and it's affects it has on you. It can also help you break away from influences and effects which are not serving you well and find new ways of living.

Art Facilitation 02.8

In this post I will show you about:
Making fantasy animals: make-believe animals, monsters or dinosaurs.

Theme:
'Unspoken fears'

Aim:

• To explore the subject “what is scary?”
• To develop fantasy/imagination and to express it in three dimensional terms
• Stimulate discussion about imaginary or pretend creatures; although we know that they are not real we can make believe that they are real.  Talking about scary animals or people gives them an opportunity to speak about fears in a safe place.

Activity

Anything can be used. I used recycled material: the top of the milk bottle + handle as the head and a sturdy cardboard box was used as the body. The head and body are joined together by making a hole in the appropriate places and using a toilet roll to link the two pieces. We added string tails as well. My only cost was the glue, glitter glue and paint.

Materials:

• Milk bottles,
•  boxes, 
• toilet rolls, 
• egg boxes,
• string, 
• wool, 
• fluffy material, 
• magazines, 
• paint, glitter glue
• glue.

Art Facilitation 02.7

This is a cropped example of the process of making the "family tree".
In order to protect the identity of the individual and their family I have cropped  the page.

My potato print family tree.

Theme:
Who is my family?

This next exercise is not purely an art & craft exercise. I modified it from a genogram, which is usually used by doctors, social workers and counsellors, making it a fun exercise for them.

A genogram looks a bit like a family tree. I think the children understand this explanation better and so this is why I called it a family tree. Genograms are used to show familial patterns and trends of addictions (alcohol and drugs) and abusive relationships; as well as physical problems and illnesses such as heart, cancer, diabetes etc.

Aim:        

• Through potato prints make a basic fun ‘family tree’ which will indicate the dynamics in a similar way that a genogram would.
• To explore and indicate the family dynamics e.g. who they live with, who they like relating to, the feelings in the family and who is deceased. In this way they discover more about who they are. In the group they can develop an appreciation for each other through discussion.
• The discussion facilitates appreciation and understanding of how they might be going through similar situations. In this way it develops a bond and support in the group.

I will explain step by step how I managed to involve the children in documenting their family system.

Activity

1. Draw two horizontal lines across the page, dividing the page into three in this way making a three tiered ‘graph’ showing the family: (1) children: brothers, sisters and cousins; ( 2) parents: moms, dads and aunts and uncles; and (3) grandparents.
2.  In the middle of tier (1) make a potato print symbolizing themselves.
3. Then print all their brothers, sisters and cousins who might be living with them, in the same row.
4. After that move to tier (2) showing mother/father/ aunt/ uncle with whom they live.
5. Next show in tier (3) their grandparents.             
6. Once this is done the first tier should be dry and they can add limbs and faces. In this way they can work their way back up the tiers doing the same for the rest of their extended family.
7. I then asked them to draw a line from them to the person they enjoy talking to (there could be more than person). This is to help them identify for themselves who they most trust.
8. Lastly I said they could indicate if someone had died in the family by putting a cross through them.

They can decorate the family drawing with glitter glue and foam shapes.

Informal discussion can evolve into sharing what they have in common with the other members of the group, e.g. what happens in the family, who looks after them, who has to look after themselves, who has experienced loss of a parent or grandparent.

Glitter glue and potatoes.

Materials:

• Paper, 
• paint, 
• potatoes, 
• pencils
• crayons, 
• foamtastic shapes
• glitter glue.

Decorations.

Everyday Opinions: sucking the nectar.

Photo taken by Siobhan Noffke. You can see her work here at

Bees suck the nectar out of flowers to make their honey. We should suck the goodness from our lives. Just as bees are helped by the worker bees to make the honey so we need to help each other turn our ‘nectar’ into ‘honey.’  Making the time and consistent effort gets us the best results. Valuing and using our talents, skills, and motivation, and being encouragement and compassionately viewed are some of the nectar ingredients for making our ‘honey’.

My honey provides me with nourishment for myself, my family, friends, work and the wider circle of people with whom I come in contact.It is also for healing and riotous joy; and the outpouring productivity and sweet enjoyment. What does your honey provide?

Just as a bee needs the rest of the colony we too need each other in order to encourage and bring the best out of each other. This interconnectivity helps us live our best lives. I want to suck the nectar and live my best life.

A warm smile,
Morag.

If you want more information about bees, here are three links 1, 2, and 3.:

Art Facilitation 2.06

Bee by girl aged 8 years.

Egg box animals

Theme:
Finding common ground in the group. (As drawing was more anxiety provoking for this group I planned the construction for them. They all participated enthusiastically and created very individual looking bees.)

Planning and creating.

Aim:

• By using construction skills which were similar in ability bring a feeling of artistic equality within the group
• Develop dexterity in construction.
• Develop imagination and fantasy. 

Further construction

Activity and instructions:

Have some egg boxes prepared (cut into strips) and demonstrate: I showed them models of insects (ladybird, worm, dragonfly and bee). Encourage them to make their own creatures. It is best to construct the whole insect first and then paint as the cardboard gets soft and mushy. It becomes dissatisfying for them when their creations fall apart while under construction. Masking tape, staplers and split pins are a good option if you or the children are looking for speedy results. Once the paint is dry you can glue on the other decorations.

Materials:

• Egg boxes, 
• boxes, 
• split pins, 
• masking tape, 
• glue, stapler, 
• pom-poms, 
• eyes, 
• wire, 
• pipe cleaners,
• beads, 
• paint, 
• pencils,
• pastels. 

Bee by boy aged 12 year.

Everyday Opinions: ups and downs of life

Photo taken by Siobhan Noffke. You can see her work here.

Swings: the ups and downs of life

I have never quite lost the enjoyment I had as a child, when playing in the park.
I still like to swing on the swings.
I also dabble in photography.
One time,
as I was swinging,
I was observing which view point
would be the best vantage for a photo: high up, then low down, high up again…close up, then far away, then close up again;
this is what I observed
as I swung. 
Then I realised that this is just like life. My life is held up by the branch which is firm and steadfast
but the cycles of ups and downs
are like the swinging
to and fro.
Some aspects are worthy of taking a photo,
others are not noteworthy, while still others are just plain ugly.
But I know,
just as the swing swings, that life will change
and become better again,
worthy
of the photo shot.
Sometime
ago,
while I chatted to a friend of mine about these ups and downs of life,
I used this analogy to explain how I cope when things get tough.

Such it is:
the swings of ups and downs in life.

: ) M

Art Facilitation 02.5

Example 1 boy age 11 years old

A mixed media / collage: my fantasy tree-house

Theme:

‘The home or space where I feel safe’

Exploring which spaces or places feel safe and who would they like to have close to them in these places.

Aim:

• Is to explore and identify the ‘safe’ people in their lives; with whom they feel comfortable and making space for them.
• Develop imagination and fantasy.
• Have exposure to different artistic materials by making a mixed-media picture; using pencil, pastel, ink, paint and collage thereby continuing to develop their artistic ability.

Activity

Discussion: talk about the habitats where different animals live e.g., forest; what it looks like and what animals live in the forest. Then get them to imagine a magic forest and where or what their special place was. They can imagine living in a magic tree or in a magic tree house. Once they have their imaginary living area they can choose anyone to live with them: animals, friends, teachers, mom, dad, brothers, and sisters, whoever they want. They can also decide who they don’t want living with them. You can ask: “what happens in your magic home? What do you feel?”

Materials:

• Leaves – pre-collected
• Paper
• Ink
• Pencils
• Glue 
• Paint 
• Oil or chalk pastels
• Magazines for collage

Example 2 boy age 12 years old; pre-plan

Instructions:

The children can design their tree-houses using pencil and pastel, thinking of the people and objects they want to include with them. I gave the children the option of using paper from magazines or tracing the leaves to cut out and collage or collaging the leaves straight on to the tree. They could find people and animals from magazines to paste in or draw as the chosen people. These are the only guide lines I gave my children as I was happy for them to design and construct it how they wanted to, using the materials however they wanted; this encourages them to think for themselves.      

Example 3 girls age 9 years old

Here is a tip:
Sometimes things don’t go according to plan.
Try not to worry about it and go with the flow.
These types of exercises often have a life of their own;
I believe that people will normally create the experiences they most need.
 Just stay attentive and notice what they need from your leadership.

In this particular group of mine they wanted to rather paint and draw with minimal collaging. Paint is a wonderful messy medium which allows emotions to be expressed. It is better to accept that things are not going according to plan and that it will turn out for the best anyway.

This exercise was adapted from the book: Art therapy for Groups (a handbook of themes, games and exercises) by Marian Liebmann (1986).

Everyday Opinions: my invitation to you

Photo taken by Siobhan Noffke
You can see her work here at

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Siobhan-Noffke-Photography/190149051037904

http://caapie.deviantart.com/

‘Everyday opinions’ will be a post about my observations, reflections and opinions. It will be on anything to do with life, human behaviour, relationships, families, self-esteem, emotional vocabulary, identifying ones need and voicing it, and motivation etc. I don’t consider myself the expert or the guru but, having lived life successfully, and studied psychology & communication, I feel I am entitled to reflect on my opinions and experience here and share them with you.  

Metamorphosis speaks of change but at the same time it also entails staying the path and persevering through the growth until change occurs. My hope is that as I write about different topics it would inspire you or be of benefit to you. This is my invitation to you: if this is the type of post you think you might like to read then look out for future posts by visiting my site again.   

A warm smile 

Morag

Art Facilitation 02.4

Making masks

Theme: ‘My feelings’

This gives opportunity to explore feelings in the individual and the family.

Aim:

• To informally explore and identify feelings: sad, happy, angry, fear, and surprise.
• To develop a vocabulary, visually and verbally (feeling words and feeling colours), for feelings through discussion.
• To have an opportunity to express feelings by making a mask; showing emotion through colour and line.

Activity

• You can give each child a mirror and ask them to pull faces at themselves, making the different expressions of feelings such as sad, happy, angry, fear and surprise. You can also ask them “what does your mother/ brother/ father etc. look like when they are feeling (fill in the gap)…?”
• Discussion can also involve other questions like: “what happens when (fill in the gap)….what do you feel?”
• Using paper plates, they can draw a face, theirs of someone else’s. They can fill the colour in with paint or collage or oil / chalk pastels    

Materials:

• paper plates
• pencils
• paint 
• oil or chalk pastels
• magazines for collage
• string

Instructions:

You can prepare an example of the different facial expressions beforehand to inspire the children but the main aim is to get them expressing themselves. This is why I like to give them mirrors. Those who are developing an appreciation for realism might prefer to have some reference from which to work. The wide range of materials gives them variety and choice to express freely and uniquely.

When drawing the face the eyes need to be positioned according to the child’s eye position. After the face has been finished eye holes need to be cut, holes at the temples are cut for attaching the string which is tied behind. A third string can be attached from the top at the forehead for more stability. A hole can be cut for the mouth too if so desired.

When the masks are finished they can be used in role play or free play. 

Art Facilitation 02.3

Paper bag Puppets  

As I mentioned before, I developed the themes appropriate to their reality. The general theme for this term: the roles we play and the first day’s theme: who am I the cultural context e.g. in my family and school? The age range from 8 - 12 years old.

Aim:
·         To explore and appreciate their roles in the family, school and extra-murals; thus discovering more about their identity, individually and in the group.
·         Make a puppet out of recycled materials, showing who they are.
·         Through having fun, develop skill at using art materials for emotional expression, building self-esteem & self-confidence                                                        

                               

Activity

· Discuss examples of roles – mother, father, grandparents, siblings etc., and how the different roles play out in family, school and community. They can role-play aspects of their roles within the group.

·  After the puppets are made they can also use the puppets for role play.

Materials:

Recycled materials keeps the cost down and fosters creative thinking:
·         (Paper) sugar bags turned inside out,
·         glue,
·         crayons,
·         wool,
·         bottle tops,
·         buttons,
·         material,
·         feathers,
·         felt etc.

Instructions:

The children can do preliminary drawings to plan the puppet or they can engage in puppet making spontaneously. Basic drawing, cutting and gluing skills are needed and/or developed. Adult help is minimal. Allow the children to express their unique individuality by planning and choosing their own materials.

The face is drawn on the bottom of the paper bag, which can flap up and down when held upside-down. (See photo). The mouth is drawn over the flap so that it can be manipulated to “speak”. The rest is up to their imaginations.  

Art Facilitation 02.2

Inspiration.

Since I was dealing with children from broken homes, suffering from abuse of various types, (e.g. verbal, physical, and sexual; and neglect) I planned to develop the themes appropriate to their reality.

Some of the factors that impact these families are drug and alcohol related incidents, violence and loss of parents and/or siblings. Many emotions are unattended; to name just a few, they suffer from: fear, anxiety, sadness, confusion, loneliness, and insecurity so I decided to explore ‘the roles we play’ which would cover these themes in an unobtrusive manner.

As this was my first interaction with this group of children my aim was to get to know their artistic capabilities and their needs. They ranged in age developmentally so I tried to establish common ground and trust. I was given 7 weeks to facilitate these art workshops thus I decided not to address any of these issues directly but rather to pave the way for work in the future; work that would explore issues at a deeper and more personal level. 

The purpose of the first session was for introductions, helping me get to know them better, while the last session was a way of saying good bye. And in termination, to create expectancy of what good care is; how they can look out for care and ask for it in the future.  

Here is a table of my weekly plan:

Theme	Explanation	Activity
'who I am?'	exploring their cultural context	puppets
'my feelings'	exploring feelings, feeling words and feeling colours	masks
'the home or space where I feel safe'	exploring which spaces or places feel safe and who would they like to have close to them in these places	a fantasy tree house
finding common ground in the group	a creative exercise that availed upon their similar dexterity so as to even out any feelings of performance anxiety or competition.	egg box animals
'who is my family?'	they drew their family members with whom they lived, using the idea of a family tree or genogram	'family tree’
'my fears'	making monsters, dinosaurs or fantacy animals	scary animals
'the umbrella of love'	parents , teachers and other adults who are caring or look out for them	umbrellas

Next time I will show you the children’s art with a short explanation of the materials and how they made their creations.

Art Facilitation 02.1

Using Recyclable goods.

Collecting Goods:

I save up many items and I ask friends and family to do the same. Old age homes and other community organisations can also be approached as they often buy in bulk and have lots to throw away. Artists have been labelled as hoarders or collectors as they can always find new uses for things; this is part of their creative gifting.  I try to balance this “gifting” with organisation so I plan ahead of time and save goods for specific projects in order not to be inundated with “junk”.

Here is a list of goods that I have commonly used for my workshops:

·         Toilet rolls

·         Milk cartons (with handles)

·         Boxes of different shapes

·         Cardboard egg boxes

·         Brown paper packets

·         Bottle caps

·         Buttons

·         Wool

·         String

·         Material scraps

·         Newspaper

·         Wooden pegs

·         Tea bags

·         Tins

Some tips:

As soon as I have used something recyclable I clean it, e.g. tins and milk bottles, so that they are ready for use for my workshops.

Glue does not always work so well because if you use it on non-porous objects it will take a long time to dry. Children especially are impatient to move onto the next step. You must also be careful of toxic glues when working with children. Always read the label.  Other options, apart from glue, are masking tape, staples and split pins. For younger ages it’s much more gratifying to finish the activity in one session rather than dragging it over the next week which is why I suggest the other options.

As children love to use paint liberally it is best to paint and decorate after constructing 3D models because paint makes cardboard soggy and it falls apart while you are still constructing it. It is also important to be willing and ready to take part in the activities.  This is not so much as to take over or do the difficult parts for the children but to encourage and give ideas on problem solving or how to cope as their designs are often quite ambitious. It is lovely to see their creative minds abuzz when they are given recycled materials and a little inspiration.

Art Facilitation 02

In the last term I have been running a course for a group of 6 underprivileged children, ages ranging from 8 - 12 years old.

Aims of the art workshop:

• To help underprivileged children come to terms with emotions in a creative way through art. 
• To give the children an opportunity to develop and learn new artistic techniques.
•  To help the children be able to identify with other children in a group who are going through similar circumstances. E.g Loss, the effects alcoholism, abuse, abandonment, poverty.
• To expose the children a large range of materials out of which to build their models. This allows them the opportunity to make decisions and choices as well as allowing them to use their imaginations and make unique creations instead of identical copies of my example.

Challenges:

Older children are more conscious of realism and final product when it comes to art where as younger children draw more symbolically. (You can read more about this developmental theory by Susan K Donely here) So running a course for children of different ages was one of my challenges. My observation was that this difference caused quite a bit of anxiety within the group when I got them to draw. In order to overcome this I included more 3 dimensional modeling activities which equalized the children's abilities, I also used more fantasy and imagination stressing individuality.

Constraints:

As this was a course for underprivileged children I decided to use as many recyclable goods as possible, this helped with the overall cost of the course and it was also a good opportunity to teach the children about being environmentally conscious.

~Morag noffke

Art Facilitation 01

I run a number of different creative courses under the heading Art Alchemy. I chose the word Alchemy because it adequately describes the amalgamation of different art techniques and mediums coming together to create something beneficial. Alchemy also describes finding the gold within your self or discovering your inner gold.

These courses are based on using art to help individuals explore creativity and self-expression. I believe that art should be for relaxation, emotional release, self-exploration and expression. I intend this process to be a creative journey that I can accompany you on. 

I also run courses for Non-Government Organizations (NGO's) which are tailor made to fit their needs and requirements.

More Information and descriptions to follow.