Art Is a Way of Knowing

March 15, 1995
An art therapist and member of the art therapy faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Allen gives excellent instructions on using image-making as a way to understand personal fears, dreams, and identity while giving us a look at her own life and image-making process. Especially useful for nonartists, Allen's text explains which art materials to purchase and how to begin a drawing or sculpture. Led into the field by the mother of art therapy, Margaret Naumburg, Allen tells the story of her life and struggles: coming to terms with her mother's death and her father's alcoholism, finding and understanding her feminine side, dealing with a loss of tenure and a change in professional identity. Through it all, she shows how image-making has helped her to understand herself, her emotions, her relationships, and her dreams. Allen has produced a wonderful book for anyone, artistic or not, who is interested in using art to know more about himself or herself. For public and academic libraries.-Elizabeth Caulfield Felt, Washington State Univ., Pullman