Today we’d like to introduce you to Diana Gibson.
Hi Diana, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I originally went to college to become a graphic designer at Sam Houston State University. After one class, I quickly changed my major to one that focused less on commercialism and more on the art-making process. I received my BFA in Studio Arts in 2004. At this time, I chose to pursue my master’s degree in Education in order to become an elementary art teacher. I completed my degree and taught k-6th grade Art in The Woodlands, Texas for two years. I enjoyed my job and loved my students, but I was still missing the connection that I was searching for with the art-making process. I, therefore, went back to school to pursue my Ph.D. in Art Education at the University of North Texas. After two years of studies, I began to really miss working with children and creating art with them, I began volunteering my time at Cook Children’s Medical Center in the Artist in Residence Programme. I fell in love with the job and begged for the hospital administration to make it a full-time position so that I could serve more patients than I was able to while only working one day a week. I stayed at Cook Children’s as their Artist in Residence for eight years and was eventually awarded a full-time position. Through my time at Cook Children’s Medical Center, I discovered that my true passion was art therapy, not art education like I had thought, So I went back to school a fourth time and received my dual Master’s in Counseling and Art Therapy from St Mary of the Woods College in Indiana. Once I had graduated with my degree, Cook Children’s Medical Center was not in a position to add an art therapist to their staff at that time. So, I was offered a position at The Art Station in Fort Worth, Texas. The Art Station is a non-profit art therapy facility whose mission is to help those in the community who may not be able to afford mental health services financially. I completed all of my internship hours at the Art Station and they taught me so much about who I am as a person as well as my mission as an art therapist. In the summer of 2018, I decided to chase one of my dreams of owning my own private practice art therapy studio. I opened the doors to Creative Clarity Art Therapy in January of 2019 and began seeing clients immediately. I also chose to pursue my certification in Animal Assisted Counseling in 2020 and I have a therapy dog named Sketch that is with me during all of our sessions to help our clients. He is like an emotional barometer and lets me know when the energy or emotions in the room change or are incongruent with what is being said since then I have moved the studio to a larger location with three treatment rooms and a lobby. Juilanna Watkins is my second art therapist and also sees clients at our new location. We have grown so much over the years and we are looking to hire a third art therapist in the near future. I never really pictured myself as someone who would break away from the normal 8-5 job and just chase down a dream that seemed so scary in the beginning. But now that I have done what I set out to do, I could not be any happier.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not been a smooth road at all times. My first office that I could afford was very small, maybe the size of a bathroom, and I had a table, art supplies, a therapy dog, and a few chairs crammed in there. It was pretty tight; I was also working full time at The Art Station when I started out so I was leaving my 8-5 in Fort Worth to drive to Burleson and see clients until 8 and then some more on Saturday mornings. My father also was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in 2020 and I became his full-time caregiver. I also discovered a medical anomaly in the formation of my spine in 2020 and had to have major back surgery in October of 2021. We intended to open our new studio in June of 2021 but because of COVID and the sparseness of construction supplies, we were not able to open our doors until August of 2021. It has been a bumpy road but definitely a road worth traveling.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My favorite art to create is what is called community art pieces and it was something that I really developed a passion for when I was working at Cook Children’s Medical Center. As the Artist in Residence part of my job was to create large art pieces for the walls of the hospital My supervisor would request that I create something large like a 6-foot whale for the new Emergency Room, for example, and I would take that request and design a way for the patients in the hospital to be involved in the completion of that piece in some way. So, I would often take these large art pieces around to the different floors and have the patients and families help me paint in sections or design fish for the water or stars for the sky. I would bring it all together with some touch-ups and outlines and then gloss the whole thing in resin so that it can be sanitized, and then they would hang the piece on the wall. The patients and families could then go and visit their art pieces and feel a sense of belonging to the joy that others feel when they look at the art. After leaving Cook Children’s in 2017, my supervisor still often reaches out to me to create large pieces of art for the walls and I love to create them, I have always enjoyed making large art, murals, and chalk murals on the ground, anything interactive like that. I am also a painter on a regular canvas scale, a jewelry maker, a potter, a fabric artist, and a colored pencil artist. I enjoy pretty much any kind of art material I can get my hands on.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
As an art therapist, I encourage every person I meet to try art therapy if they haven’t tried it yet. I can truly testify that it can be life-changing for so many people. Art therapy is often considered to only be appropriate for children, but art therapy is for all ages. My youngest client has been four years old and my oldest has been in her eighties. As a mural artist or large community art piece artist, I can be contacted by email or phone in order to discuss what they might be needing and if I can help them create something truly special.
Pricing:
- $100 per individual art therapy session
- $50 per group art therapy session
- $50 per hour on large art pieces
Contact Info:
- Website: www.creativeclarityarttherapy.com
- Instagram: creativeclarityarttherapy
- Facebook: @creativeclarityarttherapy
