Art as a mediator for intimacy: Reflections of an art-based research study

Abstract

This article presents an art-based research study that explored whether art and artmaking could be considered mediators for intimacy within personal expression. The primary participant of the study was the artist-researcher-therapist, and the imagery created served as co-participants who played the role of ‘others’ residing in the self. Certain qualities of intimacy were identified within art and artmaking: an urge to move closer, embracing small details, layering, safety, transformation, borders and empty spaces, restrictions by limiting media and tension. Art as a mediator was found to provide an intermediate space and a transcendental realm and to serve as a vehicle of expression that could bridge between the physical and the imagined, integrate inner qualities, support differentiation, encourage witnessing and reconcile ambiguity and conflict.