Diana Muhs: One Woman’s Journey Introduction: At the recent Southern California Art Therapy meeting held in San Pedro, CA, I had the pleasure to meet Susan Corrigan, Executive Director of the American Art Therapy Association. I was prompted to tell her that at my age of 64 years young I have just recently gone back to graduate school and entered the field of art therapy. I wondered it members may be interested in reading the story that brought me to our profession at this stage of my life. It's not unusual for people of all ages to be artists. Perhaps the story of returning to school to earn a Master's Degree and discovering theunique possibilities life has to offer will be of interest. So here it is....

Hollywood!  Influenced from an early age to pursue an acting career I remember my dad seeking a talent agent for me at age 11, and the excruciating excitement and stage fright I felt when I appeared on TV for the first time. He was married at the time to a popular songstress, Dorothy Shay, also known as the “Park Avenue Hillbilly”. What fun it was to tour with her to top nightclubs in New York, New Orleans, Las Vegas and of course Los Angeles. What child could resist the adulation, glamour and thrill of it all?

As true to a good Hollywood story, that marriage ended and my dad married my modeling instructor, owner of the Flaire Modeling School located on Sunset Boulevard. Times were tough and we combined living and working quarters for awhile, disguising this from clients and students. I would catch the bus on Sunset Blvd. to Hollywood High School.  By now I had the “Acting Bug”.

At age twenty, I was cast as a major player on a daytime Soap Opera called “Paradise Bay.” A twist of fate altered my life. The producers were also casting “Days of Our Lives.” My show ended after a year. Had I been cast on “Days of Our Lives,” none of the following life experiences would have unfolded.

The Sixties:  It was the “sixties”, a time of seeking, revolution/ rebellion and social change. My life partner, James Muhs, a talented, fine artist and I were drawn to the Cimarron Zen Center to study Zen Buddhism. We married and had two wonderful daughters.

The Seventies.. and Tofu: A migration from the city to the country was not uncommon. It was reflected in the music and philosophy of my generation. Los Angeles had become congested and smoggy. We sought a utopian area to raise our two children. On a wing and a prayer, we picked up and moved to Ashland, Oregon. The country was in a recession, much like now, and we knew we would have to create employment for ourselves. Having become familiarized with Tofu through the Zen experience and “The Book of Tofu” by William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi, (1975), we embarked on the adventure of a lifetime: growing a Tofu business. Starting from scratch, Ashland Soy Works came into being. Jim and I were the makers, distributors and marketers. We apprenticed to learn the craft, gathered equipment and engineered a community Tofu shop. By the time we reached our potential we were producing two tons a week, had several employees and worked ourselves into managerial tasks. The hard work was offset by the beauty of the area and desirable community to raise our children. 

Back to school for BFA: I had always wanted to advance my education, which had been put on hold because of life’s circumstances. Additionally, I had become enthralled with “clay” through community college classes while in Los Angeles. The meditative quality of wheelwork accompanied by the fundamental nature of the material neutralized my early years of transitory fantastical experience.

I was reading “The Road Less Traveled” by M. Scott Peck, 1978 when a wonderful synchronicity happened. Southern Oregon University expanded the ceramic department. and hired Jim Romberg, a Raku artist, to head the department. Zen and Tofu and Raku fit together for me. I returned to school and graduated with a BFA focusing in ceramics and sculpture exactly thirty years after graduating from Hollywood High.

Returning to where we began: Our daughters grew up and both settled in Southern California. When our first grandchild arrived we decided to return to the place where we had begun. Buyers came along for the business. We moved to the High Desert area of Southern California, which is a reasonable distance from both daughters who are now embarking on their own journeys. 

Art and art therapy: While in Oregon I had sought art therapy programs to no avail. Upon returning to California I began a pottery school in the High Desert. In 2006 synchronicity once more brought me the opportunity to advance my education. One of my pottery students, a psychologist by profession, informed me of an art therapy program at Loyola Marymount University near Los Angeles International Airport.

Upon acceptance into the Marriage and Family Therapy/ Art Therapy Program I made the commitment to follow my dream. The travel was over one hundred miles each way. I would often stay in Motel 8 to avoid the nightmare of the long commute. Challenging, rewarding, sometimes humorous, never dull I graduated in 2008 with a Masters of Arts degree in Marriage and Family Therapy and Clinical Art Therapy!

The State Hospital:  The Summer of graduation I was hired by Patton State Hospital as a Rehab/Art Therapist. This is a forensic psychiatric hospital for the criminally mental ill. The patients have serious mental illness often diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and have committed serious crimes.

I have the opportunity to bring all life experience together now. I engage my clientele in clay work at the Patton pottery studio. As I have always found clay work grounding so do my clientele often experiencing stress reduction and containment of symptoms. What a wonderful privilege to engage in experiential creativity with this diverse and challenging population.

 

This March is my 65th birthday. What is age anyway when I consider “Each Day a New Beginning?”

I am excited to be hosting the October, 2010, meeting of the Southern California Art Therapy Association at my studio in the high desert when we will combine business with the fun of Raku Firing.