Art Is a Way of Knowing: A Guide to Self-Knowledge and Spiritual Fulfillment Through Creativity

Art therapist Pat Allen writes about her journey of using art and image-making as a way to understand herself, to grow and to change -- a way to understand fears, dreams, and identity. This book is a personal memoir, direct and honest, about challenges Allen found in her life, and how making art tempered her understanding of these challenges. Allen shares her experience...the reader can take the interpretation from there. Ultimately understanding the value of art as a personal value is an important lesson of this book. What drives us to create? And what do our creations do for us? One thing they do is to make visible unconscious thoughts and feelings. Making personal art brings them to light so we can muse on them, learn from them, and understand ourselves better. Allen's book pushes me to keep on keeping on! For so long I've wondered about how to adapt what I make so others understand. Now I'm learning that has been the wrong question and challenge. This book was part of my realization of what Art is Really For -- for learning about myself -- for a message to myself -- a personal magic. Art can and does change the way we live our lives. The interesting thing to me is how making your own art can reveal deeper meanings in your life -- the real value of art-making -- understanding and meaning. Initially symbols may seem to mean something, but Pat Allen gives examples in her own life which show how understanding and living through the experiences of our lives change they way we perceive the meanings of our personal symbols. That's the great and wonderful thing about the symbolic language of images. ... A direct and candid look at one artist's experience of making art...which can inspire all of us who are driven to make things, and which can help us to better understand why. In many cases the answer in our artwork will come later, in time, when we are ready for it.

The author reveals much of her own journey through painfull life experiences and how art expressions helped her to heal.The book is filled with her own original artwork,and it is a very open,brave art indeed. Her suggestions for the reader are very stimulating,and make one eager to begin to make art.She offers many examples of art activities and materials.,and even has an appendix for a music catalogue(she suggests listening to music while artmaking)and an adress for art supply catalogue...Everyone will feel like an artist,as well as getting to know oneself at a deep level through doing this book.

A very moving and effective book with seamless ties between art therapy and personal experiences - this book easily reaches out to anybody, artist or not, therapist or not. It's for the common man and its honesty and fluent accounts make it extremely accessible.

Pat Allen is a truly gifted individual who describes activities to help us connect with our deepest questions and our answers. For many years she has studied and refined ways to make this connection with herself and the others she has worked with. After just participating in a workshop with her where we did many of the activities included in Art is a Way of Knowing, I know for myself that she has clearly laid out ways of learning important truths about ourselves and healing from the pains of life. I look forward to using them so I can live a more centered life and be more effective in my work with others.

Pat's book is well written and full of personal and artistic exercises. She represents an oppertunity for art therapy to move out of the HMO structure and back to peoples every day lives. As an Creative Arts Therapy Masters student this book gave me more insight and hope about the field then anything I was told to read for class.