Call for Cover Art Art Therapy is always looking for high quality artwork to grace the cover. Selection criteria are: Original, professionally crafted and presented artwork in all media, photographed in the vertical format, and having a high impact design that reads well in print, web and library environments. Should be sensitive to the visual-cultural standards of our international audiences. We especially invite non-traditional and new genre art -- Think of submitting a still image from a video, graphic novel, or artist book, art installation, or other image that pushes the boundaries of art in art therapy. Preference is given to AATA members. Cover artwork is juried and final selections are made at the discretion of the Editor.

About the Cover

Volume 25, Number 1, 2008

"Corn Woman,"
mixed media, 12" x 16" by Brenda Elliott, MA, who is currently working as an art therapist with psychiatric patients and enrolled in a doctoral program in clinical psychology.
Brenda writes, "Corn Woman is created from a plaster mask made 12 years ago, which I have continually changed through time to reflect life’s transitions. Corn woman nourished me in the process of completing my master’s degree. She is the Wise Old One, the symbol of passing along something to the next generation. She is a metaphor for the aggregate of outstanding teachers I have had and the healer inside of me who expends care to others."

Past Journal Covers

Volume 24, Number 4, 2008

"Healing,"
oil on canvas, 12" X 12" by Mindy Atkin, MA, a recent graduate of the clinical art therapy program of Long Island University at CW Post, Brookville, NY.

Mindy writes, "I painted this image of a regenerating tree while writing my thesis, The Healing Power Of Creative Expression. Creative expression has always helped me to navigate life’s twists and turns, and has served to strengthen and fortify me during difficult times. This tree represents all that we endure and survive, and suggests that within each of us there is power to self-heal."

Volume 24, Number 3, 2007

"Shadow,"
oil on canvas, 12" X 12" by Mildred Lachman Chapin, ATR, HLM

Mildred Lachman Chapin writes, "We are flooded these days with images from the Iraq war. What has fascinated me most are the images of women covered almost completely in black. Ever since my two years in Turkey, Muslim women, with their covered heads, sometimes faces and full bodies, have been in my psyche. My book, Reverberations: Mothers and Daughters (1994), is full of these kinds of images. I wonder what the woman inside those covers feels and try to imagine, as I identify with experiences of being a 'no one,' a shadow. How much does a 'skewed world' make this happen?"

Volume 24, Number 2, 2007

"Anniversary,"
acrylic and mixed media assemblage, 24" x 21" by Catherine Moon, Chair of the Art Therapy Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Catherine Moon writes, "I made this piece on the occasion of my 25th wedding anniversary. I wanted it to commemorate not an ideal image of marriage, but rather the way it really had been: full of beauty, brokenness, rough spots, silliness, love, and the simple accumulation of experiences over time. When I began the piece I was worried that I had set myself too large a task, that I couldn't possibly convey all that needed to be said in the piece. But it came together almost effortlessly and in the end seemed a fitting tribute."

(Photograph by Sara Bennett-Steele.)

Volume 23, Number 4, 2006

Rebecca Beers, MA, CCLS works as an art therapist at Bellevue Hospital in New York City and has served as director for the arts-based, after-school pilot Project YOU, providing services to students exhibiting symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder after 9/11. She writes, "I created this untitled self-portrait just prior to beginning my studies at New York University. Looking back, I recognize now that this piece served to contain the vast array of mixed emotions I felt at that time: excitement and uncertainty as I entered new and unexplored territory. The work underwent significant transformations as I pushed it into darker and more difficult places through a juxtaposition of dark and light color. This foreshadowed an intense inner transformation that later occurred around themes of personal identity and self-discovery during my student art therapy journey."

Volume 22, Number 4, 2005

About the Cover:
"Enter-Loc,"
36.5" x 28" fabric art by Edna J. Patterson-Petty, MFA, MA, ATR, East St. Louis, Illinois.

Ms. Patterson-Petty explains her piece as follows: "The idea for this art quilt came from the notion of the many people who are woven in and out of our lives throughout our existence. Sometimes they may bring negativity to mirror things that we need to work on in our lives. Other times they may bring rays of sunshine and bursts of color that lift us up. If we are lucky, we meet more positive individuals than negative ones. What they leave us with is locked deep in our souls, and we can draw on the memories whenever we choose to do so."

Fall 2005 (Volume 22, Number 3, 2005)

About the Cover:
"Just a Fairy Tale II"
3' x 6' acrylic on canvas by Judith Noble Fowler, MFA, ATR.

Ms. Fowler is Associate Professor/Art Education Coordinator at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri. She explains, "My creative technique in making an image is very intuitive, and I enjoy letting the symbolic details surrounding an initial mark or figurative sketch emerge as I work the piece. This particular image changed considerably from my initial sketch throughout a time period of 5 or 6 months. The title indicates a fairy tale about a frog and a young woman. For many viewers, the story of the frog prince comes to mind; however, there can be many interpretations depending on the personal experiences of the viewer. The image is 'just a fairy tale' story about the picture?"

American Art Therapy Association - ArtTherapy.org