Stories Painting Pictures <<>> Pictures Painting Stories

Abstract

In this essay, I work with the stories and artwork generated by a small group of visual art therapists who came together in a collective biography workshop. All of the participants, including the author, specialize in end-of-life and palliative art therapy. As a collective, we worked to bring our experiences back to our bodies through stories, art-making, and writing, to explore how working with people in the last days, weeks, or months of their lives affects us. In this essay I ask: What happens when stories paint pictures, and when pictures paint stories, to make visible our experiences of death, vulnerability, and love—experiences that might otherwise have been impossible to know?