RANZCP Psychiatry Conference {2010}

SATURDAY 9 OCTOBER 2010
CREATIVITY SYMPOSIUM
“WHERE DO THE CHILDREN PLAY? CREATIVE INTERVENTIONS IN THERAPY”
NOVOTEL RESORT, BAROSSA VALLEY

 

{Download Conference Brochure}

Early one morning, at that exact time when it is no longer night, but neither exclusively day, a nurse peered her head around my door. Maybe she could sense me crying, unreservedly broken, curled up in a tight ball, huddled in the darkness. She drifted in softly sat on my bed, stroking my hair for a while. We exchanged no words, not that words had any place during this momentary sense of assimilation, anyway.

These words came from a journal written by my fourteen year old self. My name is Emma Kate Codrington, and I am thrilled to be here today to talk about my own personal experience with the transformative powers of creativity, and how this experience has led me to do the work I do today. I am a graphic designer by profession, but I am an artist, photographer, writer and general creative spirit by heart.

Back in 2004, when I wrote the opening verse, I was somewhat invisible from the world, completely and hopelessly immersed, in an intoxicating paradox of complicated emotions and sadness. I was wrapped up in the horrific world of anorexia. My six year eating disorder journey involved extended hospital stays, bouts of nasogastric feeding, a disjointed secondary schooling and very interrupted transition from child to adult.

Art and journal writing were my only constants in this chronically unpredictable reality. Creating things was healing and indescribably powerful, carrying me away from the torment, into a place of calm and possibility. Even at my lowest point, I felt a desperate need to work on something productive, no matter how small. It kept alive a sense of momentum, and the small act of creating things with my own hands reinforced to me that I had the ability to create beauty.

When there weren’t images, I wrote. When there were no words, I drew, painted, collaged. Over the years, I accumulated an archive of journals, holding all of the purged emotions and memories. And in such a fragile state, I believe my creativity not only kept me going, but ultimately brought me back. So, today, I am an unequivocal believer in the transformative power of creativity on health, and the endless capacity of art for self expression, catharsis and purging of emotion.

Art continues to be both my happy place, and my safe place. I have been living a beautiful and healthy life for three years now. I am happy, I have found peace, and I am free. Jonathon Harris once said, “Once you have learned to speak, what will you say?” Being an artist, I tend to feel the need to respond to all of my life experiences in some creative way, and until recently, I have felt a persistent, nagging pull towards the allure of my eating disorder journals… to somehow use this archive for something positive and transformative.

Last year I did just that, and created my first commercial collection of 60 photographic artworks. Titled ‘Chrysalis’, the collection offers a raw and confronting portrayal through the depths of my eating disorder, using a combination of whimsical photography and journal excerpts.

I revisited my old journals and poured through years of emotions, picking out a series of poems and snippets of prose I had written over the years. I used these pieces of writing to inspire visual images and then paired them together, creating a flow of six distinct chapters which travel right through the journey: ‘Fading to Invisible’, ‘Immersion in Darkness’, ‘Broken’, ‘Awakening’, ‘Dancing in the Wind’ and ‘Hello, World’.

Last November, I exhibited these as my first solo exhibition, opened by Nick Xenophon, and arranged for all profits from artwork sales to support Aceda, who are South Australia’s not-for-profit organization supporting eating disorder sufferers. At the time, getting my raw emotions, confronting reflections and absolute vulnerability hung up on walls, in such a public arena, was probably as much for my own liberation as it was for my desire to create awareness, compassion and a resonating voice in others. And to be completely honest, I actually gave very little thought to how people might actually receive the artworks. The opening was wonderful and a blur, but it was in the days that followed, that a little bit of magic was revealed to me.

The exhibition room became like a little haven of therapy and disclosure of emotion. I chatted with perfect strangers, and it was not only people who had been through an eating disorder that I necessarily found connection with, but also people who had been through depression, a divorce, a breakup, grief, the search for identity. I started to realise the power art also has, as a catalyst for interaction, education, destigmatisation and emotion.

The community response was completely overwhelming, and the exhibition’s success led to discussion with Aceda to launch in partnership a state-wide regional tour of the Chrysalis exhibition, where we set out to travel to ten regional locations in South Australia. In March 2010, we took the exhibition to Port Augusta and in April, the exhibition went ‘over seas’ to Kingscote. Currently, the collection is being displayed at the Women’s & Children’s Hospital of Adelaide.

And recently, the complete Chrysalis collection was published into a limited edition book, to spread the collection’s message of hope further, far beyond South Australia, and to be used as a therapeutic tool and source of inspiration for the journeys of others going through a similar ordeal.

We are currently seeking corporate sponsorship opportunities and the project grants necessary to continue taking Chrysalis to further regional destinations including Mount Gambier, here in the gorgeous Barossa Valley, Murray Bridge and Whyalla.

The ultimate goal of this traveling exhibition is to raise funds, through artworks sales and book sales, to open a respite house in metropolitan Adelaide, where the families of sufferers can stay while their loved ones are receiving treatment.

Simultaneously, it is my ultimate vision and dream to open a specialist eating disorder treatment centre in Adelaide – something that is so absolutely, desperately needed. We have Chrysalis books, artworks and greeting cards available for sale today, and any purchases will contribute to these goals.

The Chrysalis project has been both my personal approach to coming full circle, and my attempt to use a horrific experience for something positive, and powerful … enough to make an impact.

Looking to the future, I cannot wait to throw myself into new creative projects, to collaborate with other artists and to share my heart of hearts with people far and wide, while creating beautiful images, photographing moments in time, stringing together heartfelt words, and exhibiting and publishing these for people to connect with.

My label for my work is ‘Emma Kate Creative’, and I registered this label as a business when I was 17. ‘Emma Kate Creative’ is my personal commitment to living an artful, passionate, creative and colourful life.

I dream of building an authentic brand that focusses on the full circle – that is, making a positive impact at the place where it all started for me, and connecting with kindred spirits along the way.