A new art project

So…I recently finished my last art project and was given a new one to create. This time, I started by reviewing my treatment goals. After that, I met with the art therapist to discuss them, and she assigned me a new project called The Coping Wheel of Emotions.

The goal of this project is to find a balance between ten emotions—five distressing emotions and five goal emotions. For each distressing emotion, I need to identify two coping skills to help manage it. For each goal emotion, I’m supposed to choose two behavioral activations—actions that could help bring about that feeling.

The emotions also need to be represented visually by blending three elements such as color, shape, size, pattern, texture, symbols, images, or words. Finally, everything has to be arranged in a way that shows how the emotions are related to each other.

At first, I started by choosing emotions from an emotion wheel and trying to balance them as opposites. But the process felt cold and impersonal. So I decided to take a few liberties with the rules and focus instead on emotions I actually experience. That changed everything.

I ended up identifying thirty emotions that feel real and relevant to me. Then I ranked them from the ones I feel most often to the ones I feel least. From there, I came up with the idea of creating an accordion-style book that would display the emotions from most to least felt.

To show the intensity of each emotion, I plan to use color shading across the top of the pages, moving from dark to light. Emotion number one will be the darkest, representing the strongest intensity, while emotion number thirty will be the lightest. Each page will include words that define the emotion, along with the required coping skills or behavioral activations. I’ve also created a unique symbol to represent each emotion.

I chose to use six-inch by six-inch square pages. What I didn’t realize at first is just how long thirty six-inch pages become when connected together—really long. That also means the book will end up being very thick. I may need to adjust my plan a bit as I move forward.

Thankfully, I still have time to work on it and figure out the details. I didn’t expect this project to be such a big undertaking, but it’s definitely going to be a challenge. At the same time, I think it has the potential to turn into something really meaningful—and maybe even something pretty cool.

I’ll upload pictures when it’s finished. More later…