Katie Flowers - Art Therapist and Art TeacherKatie’s journey has been full of twists and turns that have challenged her to find her own voice and her own route to self-expression. Along the way she has faced deep personal grief, whilst finding strength to connect local communities through various art projects in Hong Kong. Katie has been remarkably busy and has blended Art Education and Art Therapy – to create a platform and a safe space within her Wild at Art Studio for people to find their own voice and to be able to express themselves. In her vibrant studio, we sat down, played some Coldplay and immersed ourselves into Katie’s fantastic energy and love for connecting people together through what she loves. How long has your wonderful studio been open for? I moved here 3 years ago. Before that I was teaching art at Hong Kong International School then I was credentialed to be an Art Therapist. Was there anything that happened at the HK International school that inspired you to pursue a career in Art therapy? I think it was a very comfortable decision, an organic and natural shift. I came to Hong Kong in the early 90’s to work in art education. And during that time, I was teaching art and dance as well. I loved it; I was so grateful to meet other people in the same field back then. I started working early on with somebody called Lindsey and we worked on bringing - a bit like you - creative people together and pulling kids in from different schools to perform and exhibit art together, at the same time, so schools could share ideas. Then it was called Hong Kong Youth Arts Festival. Lindsey worked on the performance side while I worked on the visual arts. I was teaching in my school too, whilst working on visual arts projects in the community, meeting different artists and art teachers. That is amazing. What kinds of jobs? So for example I worked with the Vietnamese refugee camps, the local correctional centres, many local schools, working with teachers as well as hundreds of kids. I think that a lot of the projects we were creating with groups were very therapeutic but didn’t call it art therapy back then. I also presented a couple of art slots on RTHK Radio 3 as well. That is what I call busy! Yes! And I was a musical performer and occasional actor during that time as well. It was a wonderful, fizzy, exciting time. Very diverse and colourful as well! The Fringe Club back then was the home to a large and vibrant community of creative people. It’s a different environment now. Back then it was a bit scruffier, it would be a place where you would go and see very low-key music that you wouldn't have to necessarily pay for, poetry nights - well everything happened there. I had my own art exhibition and several performances there as well. There was a lot going on and it was so much fun. What changed after these times? Then my son was born in 1997 and I couldn't do 3 jobs all at the same time. I had to whittle everything down, so kept my job part time at the school for a couple of years so I could be a mum at home. I said goodbye to my job at Youth Arts but remained involved through creating Visual Arts and Performance projects to bring schools and groups together on a huge scale, such as Walking on the Ceiling, which focussed on the works of Renaissance Artists, Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci. So engaging! Did you have a chance during these times to make your own art as well? (Thinks)...Yes I did! Of course I did (chuckles). When I arrived in Hong Kong I made masks which I had started to do at Uni. They were theatre art masks, working with traditional materials. But I had a tiny flat and I am a compulsive art maker, so it kept me inspired. It was also one of the ways that Lindsey and I became friends. We had a very close friendship through shared interests, sharing our jobs at Youth Arts, many joint projects and family life too. Then I moved to Lamma Island which was a very different vibe with a friendly community. I decided to make friends by holding a mask making art project in my garden called Phenomenal Woman, it worked! And led me to make very powerful lifelong friendships which have really sustained me through all of my time on Lamma really. What are your values regarding the arts and the community? Making art together creates community, simple as that! Once people share those moments of collaboration and vulnerability, bonds are formed. The connectivity is about people finding their voices through art and being able to express themselves. Soul Sisters When Christie was very small, I had a job through ISTA (International Schools Theatre Association) at the Taipei American School facilitating dance workshops. I met a woman called Cat Ventura. That was like soul mating, we super connected on so many levels especially our art and our beliefs! We have remained dear friends since then and have maintained that friendship by meeting up in different countries as Cat moved or I travelled. We have shared a deep personal creative journey. We were both teaching in international schools back then. The IB Diploma Art course required students to make these incredible research workbooks to support their art journey and as an IB examiner I got read these books before meeting the students who made them. It was through teaching the development of IB Research workbooks that Cat and I really deepened our own Sketch-booking practice and took it further. Really what we were doing is called visual art journaling. We have shared this journaling practice together to this day. Ohh as you run those classes now as I’ve seen on your website. Yes! Now I have books everywhere. That was powerful because art journaling is an art therapy. At the end of the day art journaling is about communicating with yourself - using the visual as your mirror between you and the page. That has been a very sustaining process for me for many reasons, I experienced some significant deaths in the middle of 2000’s. I think that process was potent and integral to my own processing and dealing with such tragedy – helping me to stay sane and working through it all. Have you ever been blocked? That must’ve been very difficult to be disconnected from your flow… Yes I have been blocked! There was a time that I had this terrible feeling that I could not make art anymore. I was sharing a studio on Lamma with someone who was prolific! She would be up all night making amazing Renaissance murals on the wall! I mean, she was amazing, but she couldn't stop, she was very manic. And for me at this time I was dealing with grief, and I felt like I didn't have a voice anymore and had nothing else to say. That was hard. My internal voice was saying to myself: “You’ve rented a studio, you’re just a fraud, what were you even thinking?!” And I thought that the only thing to do was to continue my little sketchbooks books because no one has to see inside, and I just started this new approach to using my books in a more personal way. Not really as a diary but a whole blend of different things. Just to basically project your subconsciousness? Yeah! It was my safe space. And that was just powerful and wonderful. It was the best thing I could have done. Then eventually I did find my own voice. At the same time my son was little, and he was interested in the natural world. Which resonated very much with how my dad raised and taught me to love nature and growing things. - that was a very lovely connection. And then I began to gather groups of children on Lamma every Saturday, and we formed a little group called the Lamma Island Earth Keepers. It was just lovely! I did it that for years and those experiences expanded into my journaling and the children had their own little journals as well. I still see those kids today, but they are all about 25 now. At some point I was doing research for one of my IB Art students and I stumbled across Earth Poetry created by a man called John Caddy. He became an access point for me into finding out more as he was connected to Hamline University in Minneapolis that offered an MA in Art and Earth education. What a combo! What a combo, indeed. I transitioned to teaching at HKIS where they actually sponsor you to study. And everyone was getting their Master’s in Pedagogical things - which did not intrigue me. So I wrote to John! He said - let’s talk to the office. So, I ended up connecting with this really beautiful course and I did a Master's Degree in Art and Earth Education and HKIS wonderfully supported me through the whole thing and I used many Earth Based Art projects with students. I’ve always been connected to art and to nature education. Have you also still had a chance to keep working with the local communities as well? I did that as well as I continued developing new art projects within my community - cause I always had a lot of love for bringing people together. Then my mum died. That was just the worst thing - that was the hardest, worst…I did not even know what to do. It was the most disorienting thing in the world. All I could think about was that I could not go back to England now? And again as you stumble over things at the right time, a couple of the people who I followed online in the Art Journaling world were going to be teaching at an Art Retreat on the UK called ‘Call of the Wild Soul’. So I knew that I had to go to this thing. And it was in September so I had to go to my boss and told her that I found this “professional development” (chuckles) and I told her that I would be happy to take an unpaid leave. But I was called to do it for sure! So you went back to England… Yes. I attended this beautiful event in a lovely old stately home. There were 75 women there and that changed everything for me. Not only did I connect with a significant group of like-minded women in England, we are still connected and doing events together - some of them have been to Hong Kong as well! I found that I met these world-famous teachers at the retreat who were doing exactly what I do ! It was this wonderful echo. And afterwards I just wrote and wrote a kind of manifesto for my next steps in life. I arrived back in Hong Kong knew plan of what I wanted to do. It was about connecting my soul voice to a deeper purpose. I get on with kids and teenagers very well but I started to offer various art workshops with adults and found the resonance I was looking for and it was a deeper and wider thing. It was all about helping people to find your own voice and I knew I needed to create my own Art Retreat. I talked to my husband after the arrival and told him: “We’re going to find a venue for this art retreat!” – though that was so much harder than you would realise! Oh really, how come? Because most of these venues that I was after were owned by a Christian organisations that require affiliation, so we travelled around HK and eventually through a friend in HKIS we found this utterly beautiful venue in New Territories, Tao Fong San. This is where we held our first Art Journaling Retreat. We did not say it was for women exclusively but generally it is usually just women who attend. And it was an absolutely beautiful 2 and a half days and that’s when I knew I had come home to my purpose. Who was your biggest influence during your journey? My dear work partner Claire for sure - she made so much possible for me through her unfailing support. Cat Ventura who then moved to Hong Kong! It was wonderful! She walked into my HKIS art room one day which was very precious, and we continued to build our art practice together. My work with Lindsey played a big part in my life. She had a great belief in my abilities to tackle anything, so I learned fast and had so many wonderful experiences. My friend Cat then transitioned through her own personal journey with journaling into studying Art Therapy. I travelled much of this journey with her too. She would give me books to read and we would endlessly discuss the healing powers of Art for ourselves and others. We still met around the world - still journaling together in coffee shops. I eventually found an Art Therapy course in Vancouver which would allow me to do distance learning from Hong Kong. So that was a very beautiful time for 2 years and I went to Vancouver for 2 wonderful summers and met amazing people. Everything was the right thing at the right time. Sounds very holistic as well. That you picked up all of those pieces that you needed during that time as well. I knew that my time helping with children and people passing their exams was done. My own need to express myself led me to know that Art making heals and makes people feel better, that it does not matter if you are good or bad or art that’s not the point. Absolutely - especially when the expression is so unique and different to everyone. But let’s come back a little bit - have you always been creative, have you also had some influence from your parents? My parents say were not artistic - but that is not a true statement. doing. So my dad was a keyboard player and musician, my mum danced and she was a big dance influence on me. What kind of a dance did your mum do? She would do Scottish dancing, ballroom dancing, jazz dancing in various groups. But I work best with improvisational dance - expressive dance. That was part of my Expressive Art first degree course and I brought that with me to HK and I used to teach dance through my years as a teacher in the 90’s. More recently I was part of a dance group called ‘Loose Women’ we have performed here at times. I love dancing, its energies are expressive and - very healing. Somatic movement is essential to the soul. I think that the biggest gift that my parents gave me was that I could do or be anything. I was only telling my husband the other night that my parents would rent our spare room out to girls on teacher training. They were all very creative and used to make all sorts of things all the time right in our kitchen. It was just golden! I grew up with creative women who came to our home to use the spare room. So I guess much came from there. I guess that once when you came to Hong Kong, then the difference between art and expression must’ve been quite a culture shock. Actually not really. I love art expressions here. You just need to look harder for it in Hong Kong. I love it. I find local people fascinating and they are sources of incredible ideas, but it’s just not on the surface. Like everything here, you need to look down the alleyways to find things sometimes. How do you evoke creativity or trigger people to be more expressive? Well, just like anywhere else people are not that different. Certainly, when I worked for Youths Arts I would find myself in schools with very little in the way of art facilities, I have been in schools where teachers have made a shed of a roof into an art room or even a cupboard. I worked with some phenomenal, mixed demographic schools and teachers. Creativity is out there. In the local community the 90’s was full of emerging installation artists and the Fringe Club would bring all sorts of creative people together. There’s the commercial art scene of the Hollywood Road galleries and then there’s the wellspring of all the creativity that is happening in other places too. When you mentioned that the expression is not necessarily on the surface, I was wondering is it because of the attitude towards artwork because it doesn't make enough money or is it cultural, the shyness of being able to express yourself? I think it's a very different scene in Hong Kong. It's a great question to answer because it is makes me think about how I regard Hong Kong people. To get to know Hong Kong people, you need to scratch the surface a lot. It’s the way of people here. Because they do not open up so quickly they might appear non participatory. They might seem conservative or quiet. The protests were phenomenal for art! That really is a rich way to show you and explain to you what I am trying to convey - people just do not wear as much on their sleeves here as we in the West do. I love Hong Kong people for that - just being away from the radar and a bit more “pop up” (laughs). But it is all going on, flowing around us: the Be Water philosophy. When I have groups of kids in here I am so excited about what they’ve got to say because it is always so unexpected and unconventional. They are not so “showy” I love it. Do you think that “the water” still has a chance to be expressed properly in these times? Great question. But I don't have the answer to that. Certain prominent artistic people have left. Local people for the most part live in housing estates, not where “gweilos” live and they are doing their own thing in their own spaces, it’s happening. I’m very passionate about Hong Kong people. My husband was born here, my son was born here and I’ve been here for 32 years. I worked locally mostly through Youth Arts and World Wild Life and through the NGO work I do now. This studio tends to be predominantly an expat location. Coming back to Art Therapy - and as you mentioned you have more expats coming to your studio, but when it comes to therapy and mental health in general, in my own experience I’ve noticed that the stigma surrounding mental health is still out there and it is something that is still taboo. Is there a way you can approach even the local communities with art therapy? I’m in a professional group of x 30 other art therapists in Hong Kong. Probably only 2 of us are Western and we are in touch with each other about different projects. Some of them come here to run their own workshops. Primarily the art therapists that I know tend to work in certain facilities - psychiatric ones, halfway houses, housing estates…It is changing - like everything else in Hong Kong since I’ve been here. But yes, mental health is still somewhat stigmatised. I was wondering how difficult it may be with locals to be able to express themselves and connect with their subconsciousness - introducing them to your safe place? Sometimes I wonder about the word ‘therapy’ - I wish there was another way we could frame the word. That word worries people. It is very powerful how everyone has their own story and younger people are more willing to contemplate therapy as a growth process and not as a stigmatised process. I think that’s not the case in all demographics - my first art therapy client ever was a senior banker in Hong Kong whose life crashed - almost in line with the growth of his success. The crash is what led him to seek help. Therapy asks you to be vulnerable and it is usually a fear that keeps people away. Fear of themselves and a fear of what they might find. I always think about it as an investigation. You never know what you might find. When we look at the top of the iceberg which I liken to our cognitive self, we’ve got this head on our shoulders that tells us we think we know all about ourselves. It says- we are the “experts to our own problems, we are describing events. When we start creating we tap into what is below the surface, a different part of the story might emerge, because we start tapping into feelings and other narratives emerge. Yeah or about the expectations of who we think we truly are. Yes! Cognition only allows us to know so much, it comes with filters, I am filtering myself now to try and make myself coherent. Art making provides the mirror of what we didn’t know we knew. Which is why it can often be very powerful and potent experience. As you create you are having a dialogue with your art. Then as you can see it later, you might be dialoguing with it in a different way and discover other insights. That’s why people make vision boards and put them up on the wall so they can see them and dialogue through the year. You are interacting with something that was created through your subconsciousness and is connecting with you all the way back when you look at it. What is your biggest inspiration for your own self-expression? So many things! I’m inspired by the rhythms of mandalas - it is a very self-soothing process for me. Anything that calls me in. Sometimes I need to chill into something. I always have so many things going on at the same time. I love making books, I love experimenting with materials. Sometimes I want to create because I want to talk to myself. I can just pick up a magazine and cut out 5 things and I’m chatting to myself. It’s about asking myself - what do I need to know today? That’s all I need and then I’m off! You too actually! Please, check some amazing workshops and courses on Katie’s studio Wild At Art website: https://wildatartstudio.com/
Follow Katie’s projects on her Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildatartstudio/ And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildatartstudios/
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AuthorAlex Edwards is a founder of Creative Womxn in Hong Kong who has media and journalism background but also experience in art community development and social media management. Archives
November 2022
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