Art Therapy 1980 - 1985: June 2009

June 11, 2009

I have finally completed uploading all the drawings I collected.

You will notice many missing dates. There are many explanations for that.
1. I didn't draw some days
2. I was on vacation
3. Most likely, I was at work. I worked at a hospital and was on-call on the weekends. I took many extra calls for money. Mary Ellen and I had a very nice standard of living thanks to my job. It was not overly favored by my councilors! I would get up at 6am and call into work to see if they had anything I could get started on. Group started at 10am and very frequently, I would be able to get to group before needing to return to work.

You will notice that some days I would draw 5 or more pages and some days I would only draw one. There was no rhyme or reason for this. There were no rules.

You will notice that I had a hard time expressing myself. To come right out & say or tell the story was nearly impossible for me. I wish I had written so much more on the backs. Now it would be nice to know just what some of them meant, if anything.

If I think of anything else I would like to say about this era, I will add on to this note as updates.
I hope that someday, someone will benefit from the images. It seems to me that given a catalog of years of art therapy would make a good paper for a college student. My offer stands.

Thank you for looking. I have always been very proud of the drawings. It is like a mini-me!

Beckie Saar Leone

November 14, 1985

The Beach

Head that car to the beach

Due to very fair skin, I was never able to fully enjoy the beach. However, the beach symbolized home. Still living in Atlanta, I was becoming more & more homesick for Jacksonville. After my Father passed away in March 1986, my daughter Mary Ellen & I made the commitment to move back to Jacksonville as soon as we could. I moved in February 1987.

October 5, 1985

Balls of Fire

(It was almost impossible for me to come right out & say what was on my mind. Looking at this I would say I was very angry about something?)

September 7, 1985

Straight Talk by Mary Ellen

9-7-85

July 6, 1985

(an audience watches, is it the group members or people I worked with?)

(someone seated sans chair! Probably my councilor, Elaine)

May 25, 1985

Lion #1

Lion #2

Lion #3

May 4, 1985

Such organization such authority such secrets you

(I think this is a reference to the secrets that are kept in the workplace, even when they tell us we are a family & must work together. We understood confidentiality, but it was still difficult to be kept out of the loop when we were all directly or indirectly involved)