Artist Biography
The arts have always played a role in my life. While growing up, my mom, an artist herself, surrounded my brother and I with creative outlets. For every holiday, my mom was sure to prepare a craft for us to complete, from making table centerpieces for Valentine’s day made from wire and foam, to turkeys for Thanksgiving made from feathers and pipe cleaners. Working with craft materials really stimulated my senses, and kept my fidgety hands occupied. My brother and I are both diagnosed with ADHD, and working with the craft materials kept us calm, focused, and in result boosted our self esteem. My connections to art are rooted in family. I work with a variety of different media including creative writing, collage, photography, digital illustration, drawing, and painting. My work is symbolic of my personal experiences and the world around me. I use my emotions and instincts as my guide. This current body of work exemplifies the interior emotions of the world my brother and I live in with ADHD. Two on 24” x 24” and two on 20” x 20” canvas show a reproduction of photographs of my brother and I each taken during highly stimulated moments with ADHD. Response paintings with color oils on 18” x 16” and 18” x 20” canvases show my response to the feelings and emotions that I felt in the image. I hope that my work will give insight to the struggles that one can feel with ADHD, and that the internal world, though unseen, can be shared and refocused through art.
Thesis Abstract
Victoria Kempster: Focusing ADHD Through Art Thesis Advisor: Dr. Krystal Demaine
One of the most common childhood developmental needs to date surrounds ADHD, which is often displayed by difficulty with attention, lack of focus, anxiousness, and learning challenges. Art-making invites the opportunity to engage the body, focus on a task, and bring enjoyment, and positive feedback. In the realm of art therapy, art-making can promote increased attention, improved self-esteem, and soothe the nervous system. To explore this topic the author took photos of herself and her brother during a highly stimulated moment with their own personal ADHD diagnosis. Two of the photos were author self-portraits. The four photos were repainted in black and white with oils; two on 24” x 24” and two on 20” x 20” canvas. Response paintings were created with color oil paint on 18” x 16” and 18” x 20” canvases. The insight into the hyper-stimulated world of a person with ADHD is discussed through the paintings and their response art. The role of painting one’s interior world in its relevance to art therapy may offer a protocol for art therapists in working with their own clients with the ADHD diagnosis. Future