Xinlan Mao
Project title: Exploring the capacities of different art media in supporting an emerging Art Therapist to debrief post-sessions.
Xinlan is a flow traveller who is always chasing insights and enlightenment. She enjoys flowing with the momentum in each rhythm, discovering their patterns and learning their wisdom. Here is a poem to help you know her better:
What can she do?
She always carries intelligence and love.
What could she build?
A physical and spiritual place for sentient beings.
To hold the place and to contain their unknowns.
What will she bring to the rest of the journey?
All her life, with bones and blood, with heart and brain.
What is she going to become?
An art therapist with insights and compassion, holds kindness and wisdom.
How does she see the world?
A Lila from above.
Moreover, where is she now?
The way to the edges of human beings:
From a human, a female, a daughter, a young adult, a singer, a dancer and an actress to a social worker, then gradually learning to be an art therapist, finally landing down to earth.
After Xinlan began studying art therapy, she came across this quote from Rumi:
‘Don’t ask what love can make or do! Look at the colours of the world.’
Inspired by this, Xinlan began exploring this world through colours, art media, and other artistic expression approaches. Through this, she found a gate to begin her research journey of discovering the magic that hides under various art media, and experimenting with their healing functionality and/or capacity to boost insights during making.
Through this process, Xinlan has discovered that before a therapist can walk towards the client’s inner world, they first need a path to walk towards their own inner world. So, she shifted the focus of this research back to herself as an emerging art therapist, to explore the capacities of different art media in supporting an emerging art therapist to debrief following client sessions.
Xinlan says: I gradually discovered I want to be an art therapist who can teach a fallen person how to stand up again or to be with them wherever they are at and guide their way.
Mixed Media
29.7cm x 42cm
There is no statement about this piece, so just see and feel it. Thank you so much.
Mixed Media
5.3cm x 20.4 cm
This piece was made when I was experiencing physical pain, before I took painkillers. You may feel how my teeth were grinding while I was cursing the pain and kept drawing through breathing.
Color Paper, Oil Pastel, Watercolor
21cm x 29.7 cm
Can you see the friction hidden underneath the momentum of these lines? Oil pastels are experts at this.
Mixed Media
22.9cm x 35.6 cm
I found making collage is the most unconscious, relaxing activity when listening to your favourite music, watching your favourite show or with your favourite drink.
Mixed Media
21cm x 29.7cm
Different art media can add multiple layers to a piece. They all bloom in distinctive ways.
Canvas, Acrylic, Brush
79cm x 106 cm
You feel what you see.
Mixed media
21cm x 29.7cm
Please give a round of applause to the game ‘Animal Crossing’, which has supported my survival through the whole program and has softened me to become a more genuine person in every aspect of my life.