An Art Therapy Praxis and Portfolio by Angela Scalisi
Angela Scalisi’s artistic practice involves both personal artworks, and works created as part of an art therapy praxis, with the collaboration and participation of others. Following studies in Chicago and Boston, the artist has worked as a care partner for those with Alzheimer’s, cancer, and other illnesses.
Understanding the artist’s background and work in the medical field, the aesthetics of Angela’s works seem deeply rooted in the body and in medical intervention. Sometimes this is quite literal, as in the artist’s use of syringes in sculptures in her DIABETICA series. Other times, this idea of medical intervention is less obvious, though the particular aesthetics and colour palettes used throughout Angela’s portfolio suggest blood, bone, and sinew.
As the artist notes in her statement, her approach to art-making is focused on the process of creating a work, the journey from idea to finished product, rather than the finished product itself. It’s easy to see this approach as reflective of, and parallel to, a medical practice, another confluence of processes -- of diagnosis, of treatment, and perhaps of healing.
