F i r s t A b s t r a c t E m o t i o n s

Art Therapy Relics. Denver CO, USA + Berlin, DE. 2014 + 2023.

These universal emotions frame evidence of the first series of embodied abstract drawings Gutz created in a residential therapeutic context. In the marks exist sounds, saliva, and the imprint of pasts released into the present. A site of a paradigm shift. The where of-. Where the chaotic impulse to destroy was granted a new channel to use the same energetic faculties to create anew instead. The precedent foundation for an avidly unfolding art praxis.

The emotional abstractions are then framed by words written in one of Lena Whooo's Writing to Heal groups via GLADT Berlin. To Gutz's surprise the drawing series was archived and thus, reclaimed upon returning from living, learning, and healing on the historic grounds of Berlin.

The timing of the finding made the pairing feel meaningfully cyclical.

Materials: chalk pastel, ink pen, paper pages torn from an abandoned book, paper

Anger

Curiosity

Guilt

Fear

Disgust

Joy

Love

Sadness

Wonder