Sonny S.

A Soft Place to Land
Credit: Sonny S.Artist Bio

Sonny grew up in a small town in Texas in which they participated in theatre and choir as expressive art forms that helped support them through difficult times. They thought they would “never be an artist,” however when COVID hit in 2020, they utilized visual and kinesthetic art making as a way to process through grief and difficult emotions. They completed their bachelors in Psychology with a minor in Child Development and Family Sciences in 2022 and promptly moved to Portland, Oregon to pursue higher education. They have worked in high acuity residential care, behavioral therapy, and transitional housing with intersectional populations ranging from 4 to 80 years old. They are currently interning at a community mental health care organization in Washington in which they provide art therapy and participate in animal assisted care with horses.

Artist Statement

The piece before you represents my own frustration with the systems of power that oppress people in need with the contrast to the therapy space being a container of hope and safety. I went through a process of choosing colors that represent difficult emotions I feel in relation to the current societal climate and then splashed these colors onto the plywood and let them fall and drip as I mixed them together in a repetitive motion to promote regulation through art making. The act of art making with intentionality is so healing in itself and helped me to process through my own frustration with the world. I created the “therapy space” with a cigar box, covering the outside in the same shades that I used on the plywood to represent external forces at play, then covered the inside with gold in order to represent the psychological space of wisdom and insight that happens in art therapy that we as art therapists get to experience and hold with clients.