close

Visual Arts

My Journey Using Art as Physical Therapy

Babs McDonald describes her journey toward recovery from an ischemic stroke through painting and sketching. Through numerous examples of her artwork, she details her experiences pushing through impairment to create images chronicling her life. Based on her success, she advocates for the use of fine art techniques to foster upper limb movement in stroke survivors. Creating her art, she says, has taught her that “there are no failures in my recovery, only new challenges.”...

Dynamic Autonomy in Chronic Pain Management: Frida Kahlo Illustrates

As today’s healthcare professionals struggle to address the challenges of chronic-pain management, Debra Gorman-Badar argues that current multidisciplinary programs are missing a crucial component: an updated conception of patient autonomy. She details how expressive therapies help patients integrate their chronic-pain experiences into their lives and promote healing self-knowledge—as Frida Kahlo did through her remarkable paintings....

Art Informing Interdisciplinary Care for a Veteran Recovering from Traumatic Brain Injury: A Case Study

This poignant case study, featuring impressive art created by a military veteran with traumatic brain injury and comorbidities, expresses the power of Art Therapy to heal profound physical and psychological wounds. “The veteran’s art increased his self-awareness while informing the clinical team of his ongoing experience,” Gayla Elliott notes. His art and his words make a compelling case for adding art to the rehabilitation process....

Historical Perspectives in Art: The Value of Art History in a Pandemic: Teaching as a Healing Force

In this powerful reflection, Siobhan Conaty shows how art history as a health humanities discipline can provide two uniquely different (yet equally important) teaching methods for students reckoning with a health crisis. One negative (a critical reading of graphic pandemic images) and one positive (looking to art as a powerful healing instrument), each serves an important purpose. Conaty details the positive approach she recently chose for her students -- emphasizing art as a healing force....

About Visual Arts Submissions

Visual arts submissions may be submitted in several different genres, including photos, videos, original painting or artwork. For example, photo or video submissions may include collections of original photography or other multimedia to portray or analyze real issues or relationships that represent the humanities in the rehabilitation sciences. Include a brief reflective text with such ...
Show Buttons
Hide Buttons