About the Author
Susan Mintz-Bello is part-time faculty of the School of Education.
Emotional Education at Adelphi:
The Spontaneous Painting Process
Susan Mintz-Bello
mintzbello@adelphi.edu
Except for artists and young children, most of us have minimal opportunity to practice expressing our unconscious and authentic self through art-making. Tragically, emotions and our unconscious inner world have been neglected by Western education that prioritizes developing reading, verbal expression, mathematics, science, and other important intellectual skills.
The Spontaneous Painting Process is an inner-directed approach to art education that bridges our conscious and unconscious mind. Creative self-expression is an excellent channel to express the unconscious. The unconscious need not be feared. Ignoring its needs is one of the root causes for the violence, addictions, and mental afflictions of our times. Furthermore, when our body-mind is emotionally overwhelmed, and lacks a healthy channel for emotional expression, we experience difficulty functioning well academically, paying attention, and being happy.
There is a vast difference between educating for necessary skills that one must acquire to gain productive employment and educating to help a person grow as an authentic human being, and discover their inner talents. Most people are unaware of their inner depths of wisdom and authentic self. The focus on test assessments has made it especially difficult for educators to devote time so students can explore their unknown innate potentials. Inside of us, there exists an artist, a writer, a chef, an inventor, or innovator. Just as each individual’s fingerprint marks his or her identity, so does one’s unique, authentic self.
In an emotionally supportive environment, and under proper guidance, all individuals can open a door to their creative unconscious. Herein is a treasury for our innate potentials, accessed in the act of spontaneous painting. The Spontaneous Painting Process brings forth the life-affirming unconscious seed potentials of the authentic self that initially emerges onto the canvas in the form of symbolic images. Genuine symbols emerge from the deeper regions of the unconscious. Spontaneously painting symbolic images activates dormant potential and a transformative energy initiating change.
Spontaneous painting is one pedagogical approach in Whole Brain Learning. Whole Brain Learning emboldens the multileveled interconnections of both hemispheres of the brain, the right and the left, as well as the limbic and cortex areas, to all function in tandem, balancing physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of human nature. In Whole Brain Learning, our innate intelligences, including emotional, creative, spiritual, symbolic, intuitive, imaginative, visual, and kinesthetic ways of knowing, are recognized and developed, in addition to our linguistic and reflective thinking skills.
To learn from both conscious and unconscious perspectives, educators must teach from both perspectives. Training educators how to help students of all ages communicate their emotions effectively develops societal empathy as participants learn to care and accept themselves and one another, sharing their emotions. This develops the realization that we all have similar fears, dreams, and universal needs. Inner-directed art is an important tool developing humanistic education and world peace.
For more information on spontaneous painting, please visit http:// www.spontaneouspainting.com.
This article is based on the concept of a soon-to-be-published book by Susan Mintz-Bello, "Reawakening the Colors of Life." (copyright) 
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