Artistic Expression
Many find artistic expression through dance, music, painting, drawing, sculpture and theatre to be useful in eating disorder treatment and recovery.
Deep feelings that are difficult to express can often be shared and acknowledged through the arts. This form of expression offers a window to the inner workings of the heart and soul of an eating disorder sufferer.
- Articles
- Resources
Voices out of the Darkness
A bite-size art exhibit about eating disorders serves plenty of food for thought.
"Voices out of the Darkness" presents images of obsession, struggle and resolve in a small gallery near Village Gate. Its 13 artists — most of them members of a Mental Health Association program — express in paint and poetry their urgent hunger for change.
The Creative Wellness Coalition located at 320 N. Goodman St. Rochester New York, offers workshops, support groups and peer training for people with mental health diagnoses. It was founded in 1993 and has a $226,000 annual budget funded by Monroe County.
Its art therapy members discuss paths to recovery while learning painting and other media. Their eating disorder art show, featuring mostly amateur artists, is believed to be the first of its kind in Rochester. But other Coalition members have displayed art about post-traumatic stress syndrome and bipolar disorder.
Pellegrino, a 45-year-old Rochester resident, said that post-traumatic stress syndrome spurred her eating disorder.
"I went from overeating to not eating," she recalls. "I had a gastric bypass but lost only 80 pounds. Then I starved myself and nearly died several times.
"I had a sense of inner numbness — not really feeling my feelings. What saved me was a daily art therapy program in a Philadelphia hospital. It gave me an outlet that worked for me."
One of her autobiographical paintings shows a woman in a shroud-like dress. She gazes at a dark wall that represents the towering barrier of her anorexia.
A companion painting depicts a young woman dangling grapes above her lips. Instead of vines, barbed wire runs through the cluster.
"It feels painful to eat, even though grapes have hardly any calories," Pellegrino explains.
Evans' sculpture, Eat Your Heart Out, packs a higher caloric count. It's a bright red heart made of M&Ms in a Cool Whip lid.
"We're taught that food equals love," says Evans. "Not so!"
He did find a sweetheart at the center, though M&Ms had little to do with it.
"I met her through the dance and art programs," he says. "Having her like me for the way I am helped a great deal."
What: Voices out of the Darkness, an art exhibit by individuals who have experienced eating disorders.
Where: Creative Wellness Gallery, Suite 201, 320 N. Goodman St. Rochester New York (near Village Gate).
Admission: Free.
Call: (585) 325-3145 or go to www.mhcrochester.org.
Skeleton in the Closet
Skeleton in the Closet is a series of intimate portraits, by artist Fritz Liedtke, of people struggling with anorexia and bulimia.
Combining photographs and text, it creates a powerful narrative of what it's like to live with-–and leave behind-–an eating disorder.
Please browse the site, read the stories, share in the conversation, and learn more.
Renfrew Patient Art Calendar for 2010....Expressing the Voice Within
Expressing the Voice Within showcases the beautiful artwork created by alumni during treatment at The Renfrew Center. Through art therapy, these women were able to express their thoughts and feelings that could not be expressed vocally. We hope this calendar will bring much needed awareness about eating disorders, as well as inspire and empower those who have struggled in the healing and recovery process. Click here to download the order form. Cost: $15
* *Proceeds benefit The Renfrew Center Foundation: founded in 1990, is a non-profit, charitable organization dedicated to advancing the education, prevention, research and treatment of eating disorders. Through its programs, the Foundation aims to increase awareness of eating disorders as a public health issue and research the pathology and recovery patterns of people with eating disorders. The Foundation also seeks to educate professionals in the assessment, treatment and prevention of behavioral and emotional disorders by sponsoring an Annual Conference, as well as numerous seminars throughout the country. For information about The Renfrew Center Foundation, please call toll-free 1-877-367-3383 or visit www.renfrew.org
Articles
I've Seen Thinner
An Introduction to Skeleton in the Closet, by Artist Fritz Liedtke
"I've seen thinner." The woman looking at these photographs paused, closed the book.
"It's true," I replied. "Some of these men and women are healthy now. Some are very sick, and yet look healthy. Some, even with anorexia and bulimia, can be quite heavy. And some people who look quite normal—people you know, even—have an eating disorder hidden in their history."
. . .I've seen thinner.
We all have: the emaciated actresses, the walking skeletons, the withering models. Many of the women and men in this series have looked this way before; some still do. Beneath the layers of clothing and confusion is skin stretched over bones, which they are loathe to reveal. They have, as it were, a skeleton in the closet.
These photographs are about normal people, people like me. I attended college right out of high school. During that first winter away from home, I began to find myself depressed, lonely, and in poor physical condition. This went on for some time until, finally, at the college nurse's suggestion, I went to talk with someone in the counseling center. The gentleman there was gracious, asked good questions, and listened well. Over the course of the next few months, we were able to unravel the tangle of my thinking, and along the way discovered that, among other things, I was anorexic.
That word hit hard. I had never really thought about anorexia, and certainly never thought of myself as someone susceptible to it. I had assumed that eating disorders were for women who didn't like their appearance. With some research, however, I discovered that anorexia is more about issues of control, which did apply to me. I was a quiet, intelligent achiever, and I didn't want anything to get in my way—least of all food and thoughts of food. While I only dealt with this issue for a year early on in life, many people struggle with it for the rest of their lives.
This body of work is about normal people, who sit down with me over coffee, and pour out their secrets: abuse, neglect, insecurity, cruel and thoughtless words, terrible things they've done to their bodies and families, the results, the healing process, the enduring ache within. They tell me, a complete stranger, things they have told no one else. I am their confessor, their confidant, their priest.
I've seen thinner isn't merely a phrase uttered by those who view this work; it is also the mantra of those who suffer from eating disorders. It is their constant obsession, the drive behind their intense efforts to control their lives and minds and bodies. They've seen thinner models, actresses, parents, friends; they've seen themselves thinner when they were younger; they've seen thinner clothes; they want to fit in. They want it so badly that some are willing to die for it. Even the briefest perusal of pro-anorexia literature reveals how driven, competitive, disciplined, and anxious these people are. Their walls are often plastered with glossy prints of thin models, their floors littered with magazines, diet books, exercise equipment, and scales. They've seen thinner, and it is their promised land, just a few more pounds away.
In a society saturated with shallow, narrow definitions of beauty, anorexia is an increasingly prevalent trend. Movie stars, magazine ads, Atkins diets, internet pornography, fashion models, MTV...the pressure to look thin and attractive is an oppressive force that is difficult to resist. Everyone wants to be an American Idol. But obsession with appearance is not the only motivation for restrictive eating. Dancers, gymnasts, wrestlers, and others, find themselves in unhealthy eating patterns in order to stay competitive. Ultimately, the disorder is really a means for controlling one part of a person's world.
Conservative estimates suggest that three out of every one hundred Americans have eating disorders. Approximately 8 million women and girls and 1 million men and boys suffer with anorexia in the United States alone. While anorexia affects females from 6-76, it is primarily confined to the domain of adolescents. One percent of female adolescents in America—one in one hundred—struggle with it.
Bulimia affects another 1% of American women. Four percent of all college age women struggle with this disorder; 30% of all American women dieters practice binge eating.
These disorders are a silent epidemic; they are rarely discussed, fraught with shame, and often go undetected in those who suffer with them. Of those who do not seek treatment, twenty percent may die.
In the end, however, anorexia and bulimia are not about numbers or statistics. They are about individual people, each one with a name and a face and a home, struggling for control over their bodies and minds and lives. Their stories include their families, friends, counselors, classmates, their spouses and children. These are the stories I am here tell, stories of normal people like you and me.
Viewed together, these small stories combine to make a single whole, as small chapters make for a larger narrative. Themes emerge, similarities. Perhaps the clearest theme is also the simplest, one which every normal person would acknowledge: the desire to be known and loved for who we are....View Exhibit
*All text is copyright 2008 by Fritz Liedtke, and is not to be reproduced in any form without written permission from the author.
Resources
The Allasso Foundation: The Allasso Foundation's mission is to increase public awareness of the healing powers inherent in creative expression and to use the artistic process and works
of art to promote a society free from eating and body image disorders.
American Dance Therapy Association: Founded in 1966, the American Dance Therapy Association works to establish and maintain high standards of professional education and competence in the field of dance/movement therapy.
Mirrors Art Exhibit: Mirrors, are integral part of life we use them to create an image of who we are, who we think we should or could be and who we want to be, you find them in our bathrooms, bedrooms, purses and in other people's eyes, words and thoughts. As an art exhibition Mirrors become a tool in expressing how others see themselves, reflecting how we see ourselves and the common thoughts and images that surround this, but furthermore Mirrors is a means to show how art can transform, reveal, confirm and change our associations between the beauty within both life and ourselves.