Creative Expression and Wellbeing in Higher Education: Making and Movement as Mindful Moments of Self-care

252 Pages·2022·17.199 MB·English

by  Narelle Lemon

Creative Expression and Wellbeing
in Higher Education
This volume focuses on individual and collective practices of creativity,
embodiment and movement as acts of self-care and wellbeing.
Creative Expression and Wellbeing in Higher Education positions creative and
movement expression as an important act for professionals working in higher
education, as a way to connect, communicate, practice activism or simply slow
down. Through examples as diverse as movement through dance and exercise,
expression through drawing, writing or singing and creating objects with one’s
hands, the authors share how individual and collective acts of creativity and
movement enhance, support and embrace wellbeing, of fering guidance to the
reader on how such creative expression can be adopted as self-care practice.
This book highlights how connection to hand, body, voice and mind has been
imperative in this process for expression, flow and engagement with self and
wellbeing practices.
Self-care and wellbeing are complex at the best of times. In higher education,
these are actions that are constantly being grappled with personally, collectively
and systematically. Designed to support readers working in higher education,
this book will also be of great interest to professionals and researchers.
Narelle Lemon is an interdisciplinary researcher in the fields of education,
positive psychology and arts, holding the positions of Associate Professor in
Education and Associate Dean (Education) for the School of Social Sciences,
Media, Film and Education at Swinburne University of Technology in
Melbourne, Australia.
Wellbeing and Self-care in Higher Education
Editor: Narelle Lemon
Healthy Relationships in Higher Education
Promoting Wellbeing Across Academia
Edited by Narelle Lemon
Creating a Place for Self-care and Wellbeing in Higher Education
Finding Meaning Across Academia
Edited by Narelle Lemon
Creative Expression and Wellbeing in Higher Education
Making and Movement as Mindful Moments of Self-care
Edited by Narelle Lemon
Reflections on Valuing Wellbeing in Higher Education
Reforming our Acts of Self-care
Edited by Narelle Lemon
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
Wellbeing-and-Self-care-in-Higher-Education/book-series/WSCHE
Creative Expression and
Wellbeing in Higher
Education
Making and Movement as Mindful
Moments of Self-care
Edited by Narelle Lemon
Cover image: © Getty Images
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Narelle Lemon; individual chapters,
the contributors
The right of Narelle Lemon to be identified as the author of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lemon, Narelle, editor.
Title: Creative expression and wellbeing in higher education : making and
movement as mindful moments of self-care / edited by Narelle Lemon.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2023. |
Series: Wellbeing and self-care in higher education | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022007770 (print) | LCCN 2022007771 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781032076010 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032076027 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003207863 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: College teachers—Psychology. | College teachers—Job
stress. | College teachers—Mental health. | Arts—Therapeutic use. |
Well-being. | Self-care, Health. | Work-life balance.
Classification: LCC LB2333.2 .C74 2023 (print) | LCC LB2333.2 (ebook) |
DDC 378.1/2—dc23/eng/20220617
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022007770
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022007771
ISBN: 978-1-032-07601-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-07602-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-20786-3 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003207863
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of illustrations vii
List of contributors x
Series preface xv
Acknowledgements xviii
Review team xix
1 Poetic inquiry: transformational representations of
wellbeing and self-care in higher education 1
NARELLE LEMON
SECTION 1
Making and creating as a representation of self-care 19
2 The feeling of doingthinking and thinkingdoing of
making processes 21
MEGAN MCPHERSON
3 Journaling right and left 33
JANET SALMONS
4 Meditative math-making 53
MELISSA SILK
SECTION 2
Collaborative expression, embodiment, and the power
of relationships 71
5 Stepping of f the edge: circles of connection and
creativity for wellbeing in the academy 73
CATHERINE E. HOYSER
vi Contents
6 Running, writing, resilience: a self-study of
collaborative self-care among women faculty 87
SANDRA L. TARABOCHIA, KRISTY A. BRUGAR AND JULIE ANN WARD
7 Making mindful moments: made artefacts as a form
of data visualisation to monitor and respond to
self-care and wellbeing 105
SHARON MCDONOUGH AND NARELLE LEMON
SECTION 3
Creative practice as interruption 119
8 Using arts-based and feminist methodologies to slow
the wear and tear/s of academic work/life 121
ALISON L. BLACK
9 Playing with pictures to make sense and interrupt the
hurly-burly university game 137
MARK SELKRIG
10 Self-care in the time of crisis: an a/r/tographic
conversation to explore self-care as academics that
took an unexpected turn 153
NICOLE BRUNKER AND ROBYN GIBSON
SECTION 4
Mind, body, and movement as acts of self-care 183
11 Kia kōrero te tinana katoa (The whole body must
speak): Māori early-career academics and performing
one’s cultural self for hauora 185
JANI KATARINA TAITUHA WILSON
12 Cycling as a form of self-care: incorporating and
sustaining purposeful movement practices to support
wellbeing 199
NADINE CRANE
13 Anatomy of a burnout: walking, reading and journal
writing as practices of self-care to support intellectual life 211
LYNELLE WATTS
Index 226
Illustrations
Figures
9.1 Traditional relationship between artist and audience by
Willats (1976) 143
Images
2.1 The breadth of it is astounding. Relief printed etching on
rice paper, pigment ink, glues 1.2 m × 1 m × 0.3 m (3 bags,
installation variable) 2020 22
2.2 Three bags full of that af fect, while in anxious times. Relief
printed etching on rice paper, pigment ink, glues 2 m × 1 m
× .30 m (3 bags, installation variable) 2020 26
2.3 Shallow breathing through fog, snap. Relief printed etching
on rice paper, pigment ink, glues, pins 1.2 m × 1 m × 0.3 m
(3 bags, installation variable) 2021 28
3.1 Journaling right and left means using both practical and
creative ways to make progress with your research and practice
self-care 33
3.2 When I use my planning journal to capture and close the
proverbial book on work demands, I enjoy my creative space
for art. I am so engrossed the cares of the world are set aside 36
3.3 Sometimes, my art journaling involves reflection, when I try
to represent the beauty of the natural world around me. I use
observational skills to note colours, shapes, and the quality of
the light. Other times, I reflexively write in an ef fort to make
sense of thorny social issues in current projects 38
3.4 It is funny how journaling can sometimes blur what is outside
and what is on the page. The journal takes on its own reality 40
3.5 When I look at the world around me with paints in hand,
I note details I might not otherwise see 40
3.6 There is no right or wrong mix of words and images. I use
both, sometimes incorporating words into visual diagrams or
adding illustrations or doodles to pages of text 44
viii Illustrations
3.7 I appreciate my tech tools, but I love my art supplies! 45
3.8 A waterbrush is great for on-the-go journaling and works
well with paints or water-soluble pencils 47
3.9 Keyboards and fountain pens co-exist on my desk 48
3.10 In the midst of a busy project, the handwritten memos to
self keep me centred and on track 49
4.1 Making and flexing a hyperbolic paraboloid 55
4.2 Fold lines for creating a paper hyperbolic paraboloid 63
4.3 Opposite corners 64
4.4 HP folding completed 65
4.5 The HP form showing the location of parabolic and
hyperbolic surface curves 65
4.6 HP embodiment 66
4.7 Playful polyhedral construction 66
4.8 HP-inspired story writing 67
5.1 The tactile organic shapes that help centre and
ground me 77
6.1 Parking lot light 87
6.2 Map 92
6.3 Kristy and Sandy just before running the Dallas Marathon 93
6.4 Bicycle 94
6.5 Prairie Fire 96
6.6 Skunk 98
6.7 Bridge 99
6.8 Sunset 101
7.1 and 7.2 Photo of Sharon’s data visualisation scarf and a
snapshot of the meeting logs that forms the pattern for
the scarf (on the left), with each colour representing the
dif ferent number of meetings held on a day. Narelle’s
blanket and virtual meeting log (on the right) represents the
total number of hours per day in virtual meetings 106
7.3 #10minsofmaking 109
7.4 Mindfully reflecting on patterns of work 110
7.5 I began knitting a scarf . . . 111
7.6 Growing slowly 112
7.7 Sparking a conversation 112
7.8 Representing growth 113
7.9 My data dump 114
7.10 Being present with the representation 115
7.11 Recording hours to make the colour pattern 115
8.1 Exploring feminist snap 130
9.1 Photographic collage: Community engagement is . . . 137
9.2 Renderings for sculptures made to reflect my doctoral journey 141
9.3 Four examples of the passageway posters 145
9.4 Posters that resulted from the postcard project 146
Illustrations ix
9.5 Collage of various Zoom backgrounds 148
10.1 ‘Sitting in the bush that surrounds us’ 155
10.2 ‘To af ford myself the luxury of time’ 157
10.3 ‘I’m far from alone in this experience’ 158
10.4 ‘I yearn for the warm embrace’ 160
10.5 ‘In being prepared I was proactive’ 161
10.6 ‘Self-care came from the universe today’ 163
10.7 ‘Embrace the chaos’ 164
10.8 ‘Hold tight to the memories’ 165
10.9 ‘Bittersweet memories of my mother’ 166
10.10 ‘I’m done. I need a break’ 168
10.11 ‘This week is reflective of the Tree of Yggdrasill’ 169
10.12 ‘It is an individual responsibility’ 171
10.13 ‘The stability of the familiar’ 172
10.14 ‘Consider images through an artistic lens’ 175
10.15 Robyn’s collage 178
10.16 Nikki’s collage 179
11.1 The art of kapa haka 185
12.1 Bicycle on track 199
13.1 Walking shoes 211
13.2 Trajectory of a burnout 214
13.3 Recovery from burnout 216
13.4 Anatomy of a burnout 220
Tables
13.1 Symptoms of burnout 215