Art as Contemplative Practice

Using art therapeutically has become a widely used tool for people working with children, trauma survivors and people who are non-verbal. Michael Franklin is the chair of the graduate Transpersonal Art Therapy program at Naropa University and founder of the Naropa Community Art Studio. He’ll be speaking about art as therapy but also art as contemplative practice at the monthly Interface program that happens in Boulder on the third Friday of every month.

Franklin is the author of a book Art as Contemplative Practice: Expressive Pathways to the SELF and says that art allows us to take the inward journey as far as we wish to travel. “Contemplative approaches to art help us to visually manifest, transform, and transcend the fluctuations of our thinking – feeling – relational – spiritual self identities.”