I am an artist, art therapist, and art facilitator with over 15 years of experience bringing creative art experiences to children and adults. I received my undergraduate degree in studio art and psychology, and my graduate degree in Art Therapy. I have been a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in Massachusetts, and a Registered Art Therapist, since 2001. I have worked in schools and treatment centers, with individuals, groups, and families. In my work, I use drawing, painting, pastels, collage, found objects, clay and stone carving.

My interest in creative expression has been growing and shifting with each opportunity to bring art experiences to others. I see art as an interpretation of the external world and as expression of one’s internal world. I understand the artistic process to be a relationship, between the artist, the environment, and materials. I use art as a tool toward self-expression, self-awareness and examination, and skill-building.

Follow Your Art has grown from a combination of personal and professional observations. As an art therapist, I worked in settings with children and adults where creative self-expression was always at best secondary and at worst an afterthought to the treatment of illness. As a parent of two small children, I noticed a lack of opportunities for young children to learn about and play with different materials in a way that balances instruction with freedom to create. As an artist, I experienced a true disconnect between who I am in my studio and who I am everywhere else. And as a member of a community, I was struck by the reality that most adults are missing out on the opportunity to experience the feeling of personal transformation that comes from creating something that is a unique expression of themselves, by believing that the creation of art is meant for a chosen few.

I want art to be at the center of what I do. Follow Your Art is my way of bringing my skills, as an artist, art facilitator and art therapist, to my community, in as many ways as possible.

Somewhere around the age of 12, kids internalize the message sent by our culture that unless they are one of the precious few who can render a still life, they don’t have anything worthwhile to create. Adults and older teens often say to me, “I’m not an artist” or “I’m not creative.”

I have worked with people of all ages, from young children with special needs, to adults trying to put something creative into their everyday lives. I tell my artists that it’s not about recreating Picasso or Monet, it’s about creating you. After working as an art therapist with children, adults and families, I have learned there is great joy in witnessing an individual’s discovery of his or her own creative potential to put something meaningful in the world that has never been there before.

More recently, the FYA studio has been coordinating with local groups like the Melrose Alliance Against Violence to develop community art projects with a goal of increasing social awareness through creative action.

My personal artwork focuses on three dimensional media and painting.  Having worked in stone and wood in the past, I am currently focusing on clay wall hangings and free-form sculptures, finished in acrylic paint and oil pastels.  Some of my work is currently for sale at Hourglass Gift Gallery in Melrose MA.

Kristina Rodolico, MA, LMHC, ATR