Today: Mar 28, 2024

Student aspires to open an art therapy studio

Alex Palmieri – News Writer

Laura D’acres, a senior studio art major, has always been interested in all of the art aspects. She loved it so much, she never really even thought of it as a career.

As a transfer student from Norwalk Community College, D’acres came to Southern to major in art education. But the more studio classes she started taking, it made her realize what her true passion for art truly was.

“I plan on going to grad school for art therapy,” said D’acres. “When I have my masters in art therapy, I want to either work with children with special needs, or work with veterans with PTSD.”

D’acres said her sister was in the military, in the marine branch. Though her sister did not admit that she has PTSD, D’acres said she can tell that her sister has changed since she has been back from Iraq for the second time.

“So I figured,” said D’acres, “doing art therapy with veterans would be good.”

D’acres did not know about art therapy until 10 years ago, so she did not know this is what she always wanted to do. A main reason why she would like to get into this field is to help people.

“It’s just convenient that,” said D’acres, “what I ended up wanting to, is something that I love to do.”

At home, in D’acres little free time, she said she likes to paint pictures of a lot of different things that comes to her mind. She started painting at Southern because of the classes she took. At home, she likes to work on portraiture.

“So I do portraits of past family members and stuff,” said D’acres.

Her favorite art is ceramics. D’acres said it is calming and therapeutic for her to play with the clay and relax.

“Ceramics is probably my favorite studio class,” said D’acres.

Being close to age 30 by the time she graduates, D’acres said she hopes to stay in the art therapy field for as long as possible. Although life might throw her curveballs and throw her unexpected events, she said she hopes to be an art therapist until the time she retires. Her end goal is to stick with art therapy as long as possible.

“You never really know what’s going to happen,” said D’acres. “But I want to maybe start my own company doing art therapy.”

Since she was a kid, D’acres said she has always had a love for art. She said as a small child, the memories she had were coloring and just exploring all of the different arts. Though there was no specific moment or event that made her become interested in it, D’acres said she has just always been interested and had a passion for art.

“The therapy side,” said D’acres, “probably when I was at NCC and took my first psychology class is when I got into the psychology aspect of it; and then just marrying the two subjects into art therapy.”

Photo Credit: Alex Palmieri – News Writer

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