Guiding images are waiting for us if we choose to receive them…they appear to us clothed in whatever shape will help us understand our dilemmas…our task is to learn to dance with, to flow with, these images.
Pat Allen
Anna Jongeleen
MPS- Art Therapy, 2020 grad
Treaty 6 territory, Edmonton, AB
Images created 2016-2019
(1) Bodymap, (2) True, (3) Real=Rare, (4) Bodymap Mermaid, (5) Fingertips, (6) Mask
The heart of human identity is the capacity and desire for birthing. To be is to become creative and bring forth the beautiful.
John O’Donohue
Michaela DeVries
MPS- Art Therapy, 2020 grad
The unceded territories of the Ligʷiɫdax̌ʷ , Klahoose, and K’omoks First Nations, Campbell River, BC
Mud Goddess: plaster cast and mixed media
Mud Goddess was created in a studio course alongside one of my dear friends. She assisted me in creating a cast of my own face and I assisted in creating a cast of hers. What emerged of this cast was deeply moving. The process of two women coming together in creativity and healing felt and still feels ancient. Mud Goddess represents much that cannot be put into words; however, the process of sitting with each other in the depths of our soul work is the epitome and the goodness of my St. Stephens experience.
Art therapy as a sacred intersection between our living souls and the divine.
The art process offers one of the few ways we human beings have found to utilize and to synthesize all or ourselves-body, mind and spirit.
Judith Rubin
Fan Zhang
MPS- Art Therapy, 2020 grad
Treaty 6 territory, Edmonton, AB
(1) Melody of Rainbows and Feather dance, (2) Holderwood and Stone, (3) Final Vision: My Mystical Melody
This was a journey in playfulness and mystical elements, which lead to trust and deeper discovery. The playfulness provided space for the mystical and evoked feelings of satisfaction. Profound meanings in the art making process brought new insights, awareness and clarity.
The imagination is fundamental to all human activity; indeed, exercising imagination is the creative and critical, intuitive and integrative process central to human becoming.
Christine Valters Paintner
Samantha Diminutto
MPS- Art Therapy, 2020 grad
Treaty 7 territory, Calgary, AB
Holes in the Veil: Acrylic Paint on Paper, 3 6″x8″
I poke holes in the veil that separates my imagination from reality. These holes leak creativity. I collect and nurture this creativity to alter my reality.
By cultivating the artist within we become better equipped to emphatically connect with and cultivate the artist in others.
Catherine Moon
Katrina Grabner
MPS- Art Therapy, 2021 grad
The unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, Vancouver, BC
RED: A Digital Booklet
RED was birthed during a one week, art therapy studio intensive course, at St. Stephens College. It began with a series of red finger-paintings, which led to textile, clay, movement and word experiments. Later this developed into a larger art installation and then photos taken merged together to form this digital booklet created as a final project for the course. RED is my journey through anger and learning to listen and be with her. The week in the studio for me was about following the breadcrumbs of my intuitive wisdom. She led me to new colours, new ways of moving, new ways of being and ultimately a new story that it was time to step into.
We are storytelling creatures. We look to art, and to story to help us make sense of the world, especially when what’s happened makes no sense. We need images to live into, stories to guide us into the new life that has come. We need the creative process to bear witness to our reality.
Megan Devine
Tianna Mapstone
MPS- Art Therapy, 2020 grad
Treaty 6 territory, Edmonton, AB
The Delicate Art of Holding Fire Between Your Teeth
I am interested in the ephemera of daily life, the emergence of beauty from pain, and the creation of safety from states of chaos. These pieces emerged from dual concepts ignited within different courses at St. Stephens college. The first was exploring the idea of consciousness and the unconscious and the ways these two interacted and existed together simultaneously. The other was the idea of holding grief: how do we hold it? What container is strong enough? Light enough? Flexible enough? Safe enough? With found materials, melted materials from a fire, broken machinery, wire, and beads and fabric and buttons, keys and trinkets, I play with this idea of using the old and found and even tragic to build something new. I am exploring ways of holding something sacred, while allowing space for the conscious and unconscious to pass through. It is a continual exploration.
This website was curated and developed by St. Stephens student Katrina Grabner. This is not an official website of St. Stephens College. Any views expressed belong to the students and not the college.
St. Stephens College is an affiliated degree-granting graduate college of the University of Alberta, located on Treaty 6 territory. They offer graduate programs that educate the whole person (body, mind, and spirit) and are accessible to people of any faith tradition, or no faith tradition. All participants in this online art show are recent/current graduates of St. Stephens’ Master of Psychotherapy and Spirituality with an Art Therapy Specialization, which meets the Educational Standards of the Canadian Art Therapy Association (CATA).
Guiding Images Art Therapy Grad Art Show 