Elsie Kwong

“Everything has its own time.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). My art has been recording my thoughts and feelings toward a status, a particular person, a relationship or interaction in a moment.

In a transition from being a designer to being an art therapist, drawing becomes more than an expression of ideas. I have been benefiting from the art-making process to explore my emotions, identity, source of hope, increase a sense of grounding, increase my awareness of countertransference, and empathy for other people in therapeutic relationships. The art-making experiences gave me a greater sense of self and others that emerged from unconscious to conscious, from visual to verbal. The containment of a piece of paper has been providing a safe space for me to express the complex feelings into colors and shapes by different art media, especially watercolor. Sometimes, the art-making process is a coping of a negative state, a tunnel for the inner strength to bring comfort and hope, and increase my tolerance while enduring. Those experiences made me value art as a way of exploration, reflection, expression, and conciliation, and shaped me to be ready as an art therapist.