Published:
December 2023
Issue:
Vol.18, No.2
About the creator
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Jacinta McAvoy (she/her) is passionate about exploring the creative process, working alongside art makers as they develop their personal arts practice (and how this may inform the therapeutic practice of Arts Therapists), and how Arts Based Research (ABR) can support the exploration of personal experiencing to bring clarity and meaning to our lives.
Interactions with materials, the emergent process, relationality, and collaboration are at the core of my work as a teacher, in my private practice, and my work as an artist.
This work is published in JoCAT and licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND-4.0 license.
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McAvoy, J. (2023). The art of travel: How multimodal art making is the perfect travel companion. Multimodal showings. JoCAT, 18(2). https://www.jocat-online.org/c-23-multimodal-mcavoy
The art of travel: How multimodal art making is the perfect travel companion
Jacinta McAvoy
During a seven-week stint of travelling north into outback New South Wales and Queensland, and then returning south along the coastal waters of the same states, I spent time unrolling sections of a large roll of paper and connecting my experiences of new places, materials and felt sensing, through mark-making. Always the paper was unrolled onto the bare earth, and I tracked my travels using materials that spoke to my surroundings.
Dirt, the coals from extinguished campfires, watercolour, ash, grass, water, sand… the grit of gathered materials rubbed, washed, mingled and scratched across the paper. Water flowed and formed puddles aligned with dips and hollows in the earth. Indentations from small stones and sticks on the ground tore small holes or embossed barely visible impressions into the paper.
In working multimodally with materials alongside nature, my senses became more attuned, and my interactions deepened. Sounds translated into watery movements, and light breezes lifted the paper into new life and unexpected contours. Puddles formed and watercolour dried in its own time, forming layered lines and new perspectives.
The transient nature of the work continues to emerge as I unroll and see the paper is changing as light exposes and fades the surface. Through multimodality, I am reminded that nothing stays the same and everything is transient.
Figure 1. Jacinta McAvoy, Exposure lines unrolled, 2023, paper roll.
Figure 2: Jacinta McAvoy, Where water flows, 2023, watercolour on paper.
Figure 3: Jacinta McAvoy, Pathways across the earth, 2023, campfire charcoal, watercolour, ash and dirt on paper.
Multimodal showings
The most immediate way of sharing multimodal working is through sharing multimodal expressions. Here you will find other MIECAT artists, facilitators, researchers, creative arts therapists and supervisors inviting you as reader into their experiencing of working multimodally. Each of these contributions was part of an invitation for this explainer. For more information about multimodal creative arts therapy please read the Explainer by Ariel Moy. Published work in this area can be accessed on the Multimodal Creative Arts Therapy explore page.
