Illustration of Principle 2: Kandi Jamieson’s Layered History Autoethnography

Kandi Jamieson’s Layered History Autoethnography

I taught human growth and development in an art therapy graduate program and assigned students to present an autoethnography each week to begin our class time together. According to Ellis (2004) autoethnography is research, writing, and method that connects the personal and autobiographical material to the social and cultural. The intention of this autoethnography assignment was to share personal stories of human growth and development in order to make intersections with the course material that were connected to our lives. Elements of autoethnography include concrete action, emotion, embodiment, self consciousness and interspection (Ellis, 2004). One student’s presentation exemplified the principle of using art therapy to locate the time of significance in the present. Kandi Jamieson, whose story and art I share in this vignette requested to be identified by her full name.

Kandi performed a poem and presented an art piece of layered fabric and old photos. The art and performance connected and layered stories of her own trauma alongside memories of sexual violence and trauma survived by her mother and grandmother. She used translucent fabric layers to hold these stories and histories together. The photos were sewn beneath delicate fabric to illustrate the ghostly presence of traumatic experiences passed on through the generations. Kandi’s art illustrated how these stories were present throughout her life even when they were below the surface of consciousness they shaped her childhood and family dynamics. Through words, photos and fabric she wove past stories of sexual violence, important bonds with female relatives, poverty, education, racism, and the choice live in a different way moving forward all into one breathtaking performance. The sum of the performance located her in the present and she asked, “I wonder sometimes how my body has held trauma and how much of those memories of the past affect how I respond to my children today” (Kandi Jamieson, personal communication, December 8, 2016).

Kandi’s art and performance allowed for multiple histories to operate simultaneously but was also clear that she chose to stand firmly in the present rather than being frozen by the events of the past. Her work recounted how her mother’s life, and thus her own childhood, had been organized around her Mother’s and Grandmother’s past traumatic experience. Her work acknowledged the importance of the past but aligned with her intention to live firmly and differently in the present and make choices to be a mother and a woman who acknowledges the significance of the past but dedicates herself to living fully in the present. Kandi recited, “I’m an artist, Lookin back at her past…Advocating for the children of our future, and accepting the children of our past. Moving forward with this freedom of will power. To the life of today and tomorrow. Always moving forward” (Kandi Jamieson, personal communication, October 27, 2016). In a reflection paper about the assignment Kandi shared, “I often find myself as an artist making art that reflects my own childhood memories while also making tangible meaningful memories for myself and my family through my art objects” (Kandi Jamieson, personal communication, December 8, 2016).

She illustrated these concepts with her layered books of gauzy fabric and delicate unraveling fibers carrying the residue of the past. These art pieces are committed to maintaining the residue of the lives that came before her and show her awareness that it is the residue of her life and her maternal lineage that adds to her unique character but doesn’t mire her to the past. Kandi concluded by asking the class, As art therapists, “How do we make new memories around trauma through a creative process of photography, book arts and fiber arts” (Kandi Jamieson, personal communication, December 8, 2016).

Witnessing Kandi’s art and performance was profound for our class and we discussed Kandi’s unique way of working with layers of fiber and photos and performed words as a possible template for trauma work in art therapy. Kandi’s work had an infectious quality to it the process itself was beautifully simple and metaphoric and the result was a complex layering of histories with clear choices to locate the time of significance in the present.

This vignette has provided an example of the principle; art therapy locates the time of significance in the present. The story illustrated a personal art process shared by an art therapy graduate student. The artwork she created acknowledged the multiple histories that surrounded her childhood experiences and that inform her life today. Kandi used her art and performance to declare her intention to locate the time of significance in the present making clear conscious choices for herself and her family today.

References

Ellis, C. (2004). The ethnographic I: A methodological novel about

autoethnography (Vol. 13). Lanham, MD: Rowman Altamira.