Abstract

Reflective practice in art-making is based on journal-keeping and repeated review of a period of art-making. An individual art-maker may be able to keep a journal of drawings and creative ideas but not of written reflections. Facilitated reflective practice can be a means of supporting individual reflective practice by encouraging articulated reflection through repeated one-on-one discussions. In facilitated reflective practice, the facilitator records and transcribes the discussions, thereby creating journal entries for individual art-makers. These journal entries become the base for further reflection and discussion. Through the collaborative processes of such reflective discussions, influences on individual art-making can emerge and be explored. This paper is an outcome of a study involving a feminist participatory approach to research, informed by indigenous peoples’ worldviews. The study concerned reflective practice in art-making among ten adult female solo art-makers in Aotearoa New Zealand. The women identified themselves ethnically as Māori, European, Chinese or immigrant New Zealanders. The art-making areas included dance, painting, photography, pottery, quilt-making, poetry, musical composition and performance, traditional Māori weaving and graphic and digital design. In this context, certain creative, cultural, social, embodied, spiritual and other elements and influences were identified as relevant to individual art-makers. Certain elements and influences were common to more than one art-maker and some were unique. In this paper I outline some of the key findings and discuss facilitated reflective practice in art-making with regard to these elements and influences.