Creative Projects

WRITING, ART, & COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS

WRITING

Contributing authors provide examples of how they have used a range of craft methods in their own art and self-care, and in individual, group, and community art therapy practice. The book explores the therapeutic benefits of a range of craft materials and media, as well as craft’s potential to build community, to support individuals in caring for themselves and each other, and to play a valuable role in art therapy practice.

Craft in Art Therapy demonstrates that when practiced in a culturally sensitive and socially conscious manner, craft practices are more than therapeutic—they also hold transformational potential. To find out more or to order the book, visit the publisher’s website.

For more info on my other publications, please contact me for a CV.

a stack of books titled "Craft in Art Therapy" by Lauren Leone

I write about art therapy, craft, and activism.

I edited a book, Craft in Art Therapy: Diverse Approaches to the Transformative Power of Craft Materials and Methods. Craft in Art Therapy is the first book dedicated to illustrating the incorporation of craft materials and methods into art therapy theory and practice.

ART

I use fiber arts, drawing, and mixed media methods to make stuff.

I maintain an active art practice working in fiber arts, drawing, and mixed media and have exhibited work nationally. My work explores identity, connection, and communication. I have been a member of Washington Street Art, a non-profit arts organization and co-op located in Somerville, MA, since 2008.

You can find out more about my art in my bio at the Washington Street Art website, and on Instagram at @_lauren_leone_

"While EMDR uses imaginal, mental images and art therapy uses conctete ones, it is interesting to consider the potential of what Tobin (2006) calls “cross-pollination” between the two methodologies… Both EMDR and Art Therapy u
Still some spots left in both the workshop and the 6-week art journal groups I'll be facilitating this winter! Want to use art as a self-care practice? I’m excited to be offering some virtual art journaling groups and workshops this winter! A
Are you interested in how art can support wellness? I’m excited to be offering some virtual art journaling groups and workshops this winter! Art journaling is a low-stakes artmaking practice that can help invigorate—or re-invigorate&mdas
I’m excited to be offering some virtual art journaling groups and workshops this winter! Art journaling is a low-stakes artmaking practice that can help invigorate—or re-invigorate—our creativity and support our wellbeing. And you
"The act of creating, the touch of material, the attention to detail, learning, unlearning, experimenting and reworking tap into what Springgay (2010) terms “pedagogies of touch.” For us as authors, creating constantly disrupts and d

COLLABS

I love to facilitate and participate in collaborative art projects.

Some recent collaborative projects I’ve facilitated:

  • For the month of January 2023, Mute City and I collabed on a daily call and response music and embroider project. Check it out here

  • Crafting Change is a community-based craft activism group that has been meeting since September, 2017. Here is a photo book of one of our collaborative quilts, Wake Up Everybody. I also post process shots of our current work in progress, the Hidden Figures Dinner Party quilt, on my Instagram

  • #WeHopeThisFindsYouAsWellAsCanBeExpected - A Pandemic Zine Exchange I co-facilitated with my partner Mike, for the purpose of community building and creating a pandemic time capsule through inviting 50 people to create mini-zines about their experience of the pandemic.

Some collaborative projects I’ve contributed to:

  • I created a quilt square for the Social Justice Sewing Academy’s Remembrance Project , “a community art project that creates activist art banners, for local and national organizations to publicly display for solidarity, in the fight for social justice and remembrance of those lost to violence.”

  • I participated in the Postcard Quilt Project, organized by Zak Foster and Amanda Nadig. I was partnered with another artist and we created a postcard quilt for each other based on the theme of Newness. Here’s the postcard I made. Then we each made quilt square for the community quilt based on the postcard we received from each other- here’s my quilt square. (You can check out the participants’ postcards here). Finally, all of the squares (made by over 378 artists from over 23 different countries) were assembled to make one big quilt- so cool!  

  • I contributed an embroidery piece to Vol. 1 No. 2 of Bait/Switch, a call and response art publication dedicated to inspiring, connecting, and supporting creative people across disciplines.

  • I contributed a square to the UDHR Quilt Project, a collaborative craftivism project organized by Stephanie Dunlap and Tal Fitzpatrick that both celebrates the UDHR and interrogates the current state of human rights.