Art as Soul’s Medicine
Eva San
That’s me in 2018. ▶
For my clients, I offer my art materials and my
presence as a witness to the creation process. I am
humbled before the images that they create. Often
they speak of pain, anger, frustration, sadness, grief,
and immense daily suffering and struggles. In holding
a space for these images to come through, healing
comes when they feel heard, seen and understood.
During this time, I was reading voraciously as well
as painting and writing. Through all these creative
activities, I explored the artist and her images as
a shamanic archetype – where art is a medicine
which anyone open enough can access through
deep engagement with the process. I was also
introduced to practitioners who use colours and art
for healing. Everything in my life was connected in a
seamless way, only I did not realize it then. All of these
experiences propelled me to take up Masters in
Art Therapy which I eventually did between 2012
and 2014. By using art, I offer a sacred space to people with
no voice to tell their stories, so I might be able to
understand them from a perspective of deep empathy.
As an art therapist, I try to hold a space for their
catharsis and transformation in the process of their
own myth-making.
I work as an art therapist in Singapore. My profession
has allowed me to work with people with broken
hearts and spirit. Among many others, I have worked
with children with trauma, people with disabilities, and
the elderly with dementia.
Trying out my hand on a video camera during a
visit to an Orang Asli village in Perak (2005). ▶
I make art in response to my clients and in making
sense of my experiences with them. I see my
paintbrush as a magic wand. In creating powerful
visuals to elicit feelings and emotions behind the
pictures, I also see it as a platform to regulate my
own emotions for self-care. Making therapeutic art
bypasses the limitations of words and allows me to
venture into a world where colours, shapes, and lines
intertwine and juxtapose to create a language from the
imaginary realm.
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Everything in
my life was
connected
in a seamless
way, only I did
not realize
it then.
After gaining a Bachelor of Arts from Monash
University Malaysia in 2006, my thirst for knowledge
set me on the path to pursue a Masters in English
Literature from University of Malaya. I wrote a thesis
entitled, “The female artist as a postmodern shaman
in Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing and Cat’s Eye:
The quest for female selfhood and wholeness”.