Contribution of visual art-making to the subjective well-being of women living with cancer: A qualitative study (original) (raw)
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The Journal of Positive Psychology, 2007
Why do some women turn to creative art-making after a diagnosis of cancer? Eleven women provided qualitative accounts that were analyzed following guidelines for interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Some described taking up artistic leisure activities initially in order to manage emotional distress. Others emphasized their need for positive well-being, taking up art to experience achievement and satisfaction, to regain a positive identity, and to normalize family dynamics in the context of living with cancer. Participants' turn to art-making was facilitated by biographical and contextual factors, including pre-existing craft skills, long-standing personal values and coping philosophies, family role models for managing adversity, and the supportive encouragement of family and friends. Other research has acknowledged that positive lifestyle change and post-traumatic growth can occur after a cancer diagnosis, and this study reveals a multi-faceted process. The findings suggest a need for further research into the experiences that facilitate positive lifestyle change and subjective well-being among people who are living with cancer.
Creativity Research Journal, 2008
This study explored the meanings, inspirations and subjective significance of personal artwork created as a leisure activity by women living with cancer. A convenience sample of twelve women aged between 23-74 years participated in semi-structured interviews. Participants were living in various stages of the cancer trajectory, and engaged in several forms of visual art-making. They submitted examples of their artwork by photograph and then participated in semi-structured interviews. From a phenomenological analysis, the authors inferred a number of themes. Participants perceived a few pieces, made during chemotherapy, as expressing deeper feelings about cancer in symbolic terms. More prevalent in participants' accounts were references to their artwork as a sensuous pleasure, and its confirmation of their ongoing capability, personal continuity and social connectedness. Participants acknowledged ongoing loss and difficulties related to cancer. However, each piece of art offered a measure of resistance against the psychologically and socially disruptive effects of cancer. The pre-interview photography activity was helpful for empowering participants in the interview, and for stimulating detailed memories and associations.
The role of art-making in identity maintenance: case studies of people living with cancer
European Journal of Cancer Care, 2006
The aim of this qualitative research was to understand why some people with cancer take up art as a leisure activity, and how visual art-making in daily life might support identity maintenance/ reconstruction. The study forms part of a larger project with people who view art-making as a resource for living with chronic illness. In order to provide a detailed, holistic analysis, the paper focuses on the accounts and artwork of three participants, two women (aged 47 and 59) each with breast cancer, and a man (aged 51) with stomach and lung cancer. The participants turned to art after a process of reflection but did not necessarily reject their pre-illness lifestyles or selves. Rather, art-making afforded many opportunities to retain familiar personal and social identities, and to resist being dominated by labels related to their illness. A practical implication is that people coping with cancer may need not only cognitive and emotional support, but opportunities to find meaningful activities. Such activities can be understood to have a powerful role in maintaining a familiar, positive identity in cancer, and providing a resource for coping.
This study explored the meanings, inspirations and subjective significance of personal artwork created as a leisure activity by women living with cancer. A convenience sample of twelve women aged between 23-74 years participated in semi-structured interviews. Participants were living in various stages of the cancer trajectory, and engaged in several forms of visual art-making. They submitted examples of their artwork by photograph and then participated in semi-structured interviews. From a phenomenological analysis, the authors inferred a number of themes. Participants perceived a few pieces, made during chemotherapy, as expressing deeper feelings about cancer in symbolic terms. More prevalent in participants’ accounts were references to their artwork as a sensuous pleasure, and its confirmation of their ongoing capability, personal continuity and social connectedness. Participants acknowledged ongoing loss and difficulties related to cancer. However, each piece of art offered a mea...
Public Health, 2021
Objectives: This paper presents the findings of a pilot study situated in a tertiary care cancer centre and examines the impact of an art therapy group on the experiences of women living through breast cancer. Study design: A qualitative cross-case comparative case study design was used. Methods: Ten women were interviewed about their experiences making art, many for the first time. Interviews were transcribed and analysed, along with the participants' artist statements. Findings: Categories include: the significant benefits of art therapy on their sense of selfefficacy; the emotionally enhancing nature of making art for the first time; the power of their artwork to trigger insights about themselves (including subcategories of self-actualization, existential growth, and posttraumatic growth) or in communicating their experiences to loved ones; and how making art changed their worldview and life philosophies, creating doorways of possibilities. Conclusion: This study suggests that art therapy provides a safe context to reflect on profound personal changes and to re-story losses following adversity through creative practices as a dimension of care.
A Narrative View of Art Therapy and Art Making by Women with Breast Cancer
Journal of Health Psychology, 2006
Art therapy (with an art therapist) and art making (without an art therapist) show promise as avenues for psychosocial support for women with breast cancer. The purpose of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of how 17 women with breast cancer in Canada and the USA used art therapy and their own art making to address their psychosocial needs, focusing particularly on meaning making. Narrative analysis of interviews yielded four storylines: Art and Art Therapy as a Haven; Getting a Clearer View; Clearing the Way Emotionally; and Enhancing and Enlivening the Self. The storylines show existence being affirmed, confirmed and proclaimed through visual artistic expression and meaning making being achieved through physical acts of making.
Art as a catalyst for resilience: Women artists with life-threatening illness
2013
This phenomenological inquiry focused on the experiences of 12 professional women artists diagnosed with major medical illnesses, mostly cancer. Data from three in-depth interviews with each participant indicated that their beliefs, personal strengths, learned skills, and lived experiences were fundamental to their commitment to art as a way of life. The overarching question of whether long-term involvement in creative practices acted as a catalyst for resilience during and after treatments became the seminal exploration in this study. Data analysis used methods for qualitative research devised by Moustakas (1994), Giorgi (1985), and Forinash (2012), and a conversational approach in interviews suggested by Kavale and Brinkmann (2009). Findings suggest that uniquely learned artistic skills and an evolved creative process involving uncertainty, risk-taking, experimentation, flexibility, open-mindedness, determination, and perseverance served these artists well when they faced life-threatening illnesses. Their creative endeavors gave them a sense of direction, identity, and agency based on their commitment, beliefs, and intentions. These artists were proactive in their artwork and in dealing with diagnoses and treatment options even as their priorities and energies shifted to care and healing. Visual communication let them give voice to personal expression and acts of imagination that held essential purpose and meaning. The findings suggest that these artists had art practices that were life-affirming and that art-making for them was evidence of vitality. Although art-making changed during acute illness, all participants resumed art practices, with adjustments, during and after treatments. Most participants engaged in new or changed forms of expression. Art experiences ART AS A CATALYST 13 opened possibilities for renewal in health as well as in ill health. The study demonstrated that the creative process, accessed through art-making by these artists, can have a therapeutic effect, a placebo effect, with life resumed or at the end of life. This investigation suggests that physicians, clinicians, healthcare workers, and creative art therapists could engage and encourage their patients in creative endeavors that offer possible placebo effects while accompanying them through illness and assisting in ways of psychological healing that are age-old.
2017
Life-threatening illness can be sufficiently traumatic to shatter one‘s beliefs about self, others, and the world. This disruption can trigger an instinctive search for meaning. Research highlights that how individuals respond post-adversity can make the difference between experiencing posttraumatic stress or posttraumatic growth (PTG) and existential growth (EG). This paper presents the findings of a pilot study situated in a tertiary care cancer centre and details the impact of creative arts therapy on the experiences of individuals living through breast cancer. Ten women were interviewed about their experiences making art, many for the first time. Emergent themes included: the significant benefits of art-making on their sense of self-efficacy; the emotionally enhancing nature of art-making; the power of their artwork to trigger insights (including subthemes of EG, PTG) or in communicating their experiences to loved ones; and how art-making changed their worldview and life philoso...