Bridge Drawing

[Seamus]

This is a drawing I did a few weeks ago:

My sister is studying Art Therapy and while I was visiting her she told me about some of the exercises they do with their patients to assess them in different ways. This was one of them. Its called the bridge drawing. She said that it is supposed to be useful for looking at how someone relates to goals and where they are going in life. She thought it notable that the landscape is bleak, the bridge is long and narrow and high up in the air. She also said that most people draw the direction of travel from left to right, but I am moving from left to right in my drawing, but she wasn't sure if that necessarily meant anything, just that it is out of the ordinary.

This blog page has some more information about the exercise:

Bridge Drawing
Reference: Hays, R. & Lyons, S. (1981) The Bridge Drawing: A projective technique for assessment in art therapy. Arts in Psychotherapy. (8) pp. 207-217.
Purpose: Bridge Drawing is a projective assessment that may provide insight into a person’s functioning, perception of his/her environment as a stable place, and perception of movement or stagnancy.
Ages: No age limit specified.
Materials: 8 ½ X 11 blank, white paper; drawing utensils of choice
Administration: The evaluator hands the client a piece of paper and requests that he or she “Draw a bridge going from some place to some place.”
Inquiry:
Ask artist to draw an arrow representing directionality.
Ask the artist to identify his/her location on the bridge with a dot.
Ask the artist to write or speak a few short sentences about the bridge.
Interpretation: Examiner may look for the following indicators.
Directionality: The drawn arrow typically represents left to right travel.
Placement of self: The location of the person may be indicative of how that person is approaching problems/goals.
Places drawn on either side: These places may include named land masses, symbolic connections, and un-named land masses.
Solidness: It is common to see the right side (which may represent the future) depicted as less grounded than the left side (which may represent the past).
Emphasis by elaboration: Certain areas may be given greater emphasis than other areas. Which areas are emphasized?
Construction of bridge: The construction of the bridge may imply the stability and security of the bridge. For instance, what materials were used to build the bridge?
Type of bridge: Most people draw familiar bridges. In some cases, arch bridges represent femininity whereas suspension bridges represent masculinity.
Matter under bridge: What is under the bridge? It is typical to see water. If water is present, is it calm or turbulent?
Vantage point of viewer: If the bridge is seen from above, the person may wish for control. If the bridge is seen from a worm’s-eye view, feelings of insecurity/inferiority may be present.
Axis of paper: A horizontal page is more typical. A vertical page may indicate passivity.
Consistency of Gestalt: Are there indications that parts of the picture don’t fit? Incongruence is noted.
Written Associations: The evaluator reads or listens to the picture’s verbal caption, and asks questions where deemed appropriate.
Strengths: The Bridge drawing does not necessarily take much time to create, and in most cases, can be completed in one session. It is likely to stimulate a conversation about movement or stagnancy, and goals.
Limitations: The Bridge drawing has not been proven to be significantly valid or reliable. It only produces one picture, which does not provide a lot of information to make an accurate evaluation of how the person is functioning.
Reflection: I like the Bridge drawing even though it is not a precise and proven measurement tool. I perceive the Bridge drawing more as an intervention than as an assessment. The interpretation considerations would aid in observation and in processing.

Questions, comments, insights are welcome :)

 

[3DStudent]

I like it, thanks for sharing. I generally like just pencil or charcoal on paper as a medium. Just black and white with lots of contrast. The symbolism I think could be to stay on the path and not look down, and as we do so we can move from one peak to the next.

 

[andi]

I too like it and agree with 3D Student on the style, thanks for sharing.
I'd love to see more of this if you have of course.

 

[cholas]

Nice one Seamas. Your explanation is a great addition too.

I particularly like the conical mountains.

Well done and thanks for sharing it here.

 

[andi]

..there's some quotes that come to mind:

Discipline in art is a fundamental struggle to understand oneself, as much as to understand what one is drawing.
Henry Moore

Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad.
Salvador Dali

 

[Seamus]

I like it, thanks for sharing. I generally like just pencil or charcoal on paper as a medium. Just black and white with lots of contrast. The symbolism I think could be to stay on the path and not look down, and as we do so we can move from one peak to the next.

Black and white is my favorite as well. I used to really like pen and ink with inkwash, kind of like black and white water colors. Maybe I'll try that for the next one.

..there's some quotes that come to mind:

Discipline in art is a fundamental struggle to understand oneself, as much as to understand what one is drawing.
Henry Moore

Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad.
Salvador Dali

These are great quotes. I am going to pass them along to my sister. I think the first one really gets at the point of this exercise, and art therapy in general (at least according to my limited understanding). The better you are able to see your subject objectively, the more realistic your drawing will be. Or the the better you understand yourself, the better you are able to understand the outside world.

I'm only just starting to experiment a little bit with adding some drawings to my journaling exercises, so I don't have more to share right now, but I will post any more that I make. I'm glad I posted this, thanks for the positive reinforcement :D

 

[ScarletBegonias]

This is a drawing I did a few weeks ago:

My sister is studying Art Therapy and while I was visiting her she told me about some of the exercises they do with their patients to assess them in different ways. This was one of them. Its called the bridge drawing. She said that it is supposed to be useful for looking at how someone relates to goals and where they are going in life. She thought it notable that the landscape is bleak, the bridge is long and narrow and high up in the air. She also said that most people draw the direction of travel from left to right, but I am moving from left to right in my drawing, but she wasn't sure if that necessarily meant anything, just that it is out of the ordinary.

This blog page has some more information about the exercise:

Bridge Drawing
Reference: Hays, R. & Lyons, S. (1981) The Bridge Drawing: A projective technique for assessment in art therapy. Arts in Psychotherapy. (8) pp. 207-217.
Purpose: Bridge Drawing is a projective assessment that may provide insight into a person’s functioning, perception of his/her environment as a stable place, and perception of movement or stagnancy.
Ages: No age limit specified.
Materials: 8 ½ X 11 blank, white paper; drawing utensils of choice
Administration: The evaluator hands the client a piece of paper and requests that he or she “Draw a bridge going from some place to some place.”
Inquiry:
Ask artist to draw an arrow representing directionality.
Ask the artist to identify his/her location on the bridge with a dot.
Ask the artist to write or speak a few short sentences about the bridge.
Interpretation: Examiner may look for the following indicators.
Directionality: The drawn arrow typically represents left to right travel.
Placement of self: The location of the person may be indicative of how that person is approaching problems/goals.
Places drawn on either side: These places may include named land masses, symbolic connections, and un-named land masses.
Solidness: It is common to see the right side (which may represent the future) depicted as less grounded than the left side (which may represent the past).
Emphasis by elaboration: Certain areas may be given greater emphasis than other areas. Which areas are emphasized?
Construction of bridge: The construction of the bridge may imply the stability and security of the bridge. For instance, what materials were used to build the bridge?
Type of bridge: Most people draw familiar bridges. In some cases, arch bridges represent femininity whereas suspension bridges represent masculinity.
Matter under bridge: What is under the bridge? It is typical to see water. If water is present, is it calm or turbulent?
Vantage point of viewer: If the bridge is seen from above, the person may wish for control. If the bridge is seen from a worm’s-eye view, feelings of insecurity/inferiority may be present.
Axis of paper: A horizontal page is more typical. A vertical page may indicate passivity.
Consistency of Gestalt: Are there indications that parts of the picture don’t fit? Incongruence is noted.
Written Associations: The evaluator reads or listens to the picture’s verbal caption, and asks questions where deemed appropriate.
Strengths: The Bridge drawing does not necessarily take much time to create, and in most cases, can be completed in one session. It is likely to stimulate a conversation about movement or stagnancy, and goals.
Limitations: The Bridge drawing has not been proven to be significantly valid or reliable. It only produces one picture, which does not provide a lot of information to make an accurate evaluation of how the person is functioning.
Reflection: I like the Bridge drawing even though it is not a precise and proven measurement tool. I perceive the Bridge drawing more as an intervention than as an assessment. The interpretation considerations would aid in observation and in processing.

Questions, comments, insights are welcome :)

WOW this is so fascinating! Thanks for posting it up! I am an art teacher and always find it amazing how much looking at someones' art is like looking into their soul. I also remember doing drawings like this for my psychologists when I was younger, but I think they just wanted me to draw people. I wish I still had those drawings and I wonder what they interpreted from looking at them! Again, I really appreciate you posting this! So, do you feel the interpretations of your bridge drawing are accurate according to the explanation you posted? :)

 

[Seamus]

Hi Scarlet,

WOW this is so fascinating! Thanks for posting it up! I am an art teacher and always find it amazing how much looking at someones' art is like looking into their soul. I also remember doing drawings like this for my psychologists when I was younger, but I think they just wanted me to draw people. I wish I still had those drawings and I wonder what they interpreted from looking at them! Again, I really appreciate you posting this! So, do you feel the interpretations of your bridge drawing are accurate according to the explanation you posted? :)

I'm glad you enjoyed my post. I talked to my sister a little bit about this when I drew it, but I think it was difficult for her to interpret it seriously because of our close relationship. She said that if it were one of her patients she would ask about the barrenness of the landscapes, the height of the peaks and the height of the bridge above the ground, the length of the bridge and the sturdiness. This all goes back to how you look at goals in life and where you are going. So what she thought it might imply is that I view my goals as far away and hard to reach. The length and height of the bridge seems to imply that the path is dangerous and not a sure thing. I guess I find this to be fairly accurate, but its not a conclusion I would have come to without the drawing and the discussion, so I guess the exercise was successful in that way!

I like it, thanks for sharing. I generally like just pencil or charcoal on paper as a medium. Just black and white with lots of contrast. The symbolism I think could be to stay on the path and not look down, and as we do so we can move from one peak to the next.

I like this interpretation as well. I meant the bridge to be well constructed and sturdy, its hard to see the detail but I was thinking of the bridges that are high in the Andes, well anchored by huge stone blocks and built from ropes and boards. So in my conscious mind I was thinking that it would be exciting to travel across a long bridge like this, high above the landscape in the cool mountain air.

You said that art lets you see into someone's soul... what do you see in my drawing?

 

[ScarletBegonias]

You said that art lets you see into someone's soul... what do you see in my drawing?

Ooh I put myself on the spot with this one, didn't I? :D Feel free to tell me I'm wrong! While just looking at the artwork I get the sense that the artist is feeling overwhelmed. The reason I think this is mainly because the drawing is very crowded with diagonal lines and some of the marks look like they were laid down with haste. The content also suggested this to me, because the figure appears isolated since he's small, alone and turned away. So, how did I do? ;D

 

[Seamus]

You said that art lets you see into someone's soul... what do you see in my drawing?

Ooh I put myself on the spot with this one, didn't I? :D Feel free to tell me I'm wrong! While just looking at the artwork I get the sense that the artist is feeling overwhelmed. The reason I think this is mainly because the drawing is very crowded with diagonal lines and some of the marks look like they were laid down with haste. The content also suggested this to me, because the figure appears isolated since he's small, alone and turned away. So, how did I do? ;D

Thanks for your thoughts Scarlet. I have trouble saying no to people a la The Narcissistic Family, so I always have "too much to do". I have a fear of "getting hurt" also, so I shut people out. I'm very reluctant to take risks or commit to things that matter to me, even though I tend to say yes when people ask me to do things for them, without even thinking about it. I have been working to observe these behaviors in myself, and one of the hardest things about seeing these things in myself is that I feel largely powerless to stop the pattern once it starts playing out. I would say that this makes me feel like a small figure alone on the edge of the wilderness. I just got Lost Christianity the other day and I was struck by this quote from the first couple of pages:

For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Thanks for offering your perspective, its a much different way of looking at these issues, in a non-intellectual way. FWIW I think thats exactly what this exercise is supposed to be about. It was difficult for me to share this drawing with the forum, but I can see clearly that I am gaining much by sharing this little part of myself.

 

[ScarletBegonias]

I must admit, I was a bit relieved when I read your response, Seamas. :D I also find it difficult to say no to people and one of my students told me last week that I am too nice. I have heard this before. I just like to help people out if I can, but sometimes I need to help them help themselves instead of helping them myself and thus enabling them to remain helpless. WOW did that run-on sentence make any sense at all? Lol...;) Well, I am happy to see another fine artist on here and I look forward to seeing more of your creations! Best wishes to you! :)

 

[Seamus]

I must admit, I was a bit relieved when I read your response, Seamas. :D I also find it difficult to say no to people and one of my students told me last week that I am too nice. I have heard this before. I just like to help people out if I can, but sometimes I need to help them help themselves instead of helping them myself and thus enabling them to remain helpless. WOW did that run-on sentence make any sense at all? Lol...;) Well, I am happy to see another fine artist on here and I look forward to seeing more of your creations! Best wishes to you! :)

Why were you relieved to read my response? I did ask for feedback, and you answered with honesty and insight. Do you think your sense of relief might have something to do with trying to be nice? Just to be clear, I'm asking for purposes of conversation, not because I'm trying to grill you. :)

People tell me that I am "so nice" all of the time as well. I have always felt uncomfortable when someone told me what a "nice guy" I am, even though I expend most of my energy trying to maintain that perception. In the past 6 months or so this discomfort has changed to a feeling of disgust/frustration. I expend most of my energy maintaining this mask, and I feel angry at myself when someone points it out to me. This indicates to me that this is feeding, a program designed to take something from someone else. If I were actually giving something of myself I wouldn't feel awful when people complemented me for it.

When I say yes to someone automatically, mechanically, without consideration, I lose energy. A mental fog sets in, sometimes for days (dissociation?), and I don't notice it is there until it leaves. Self deprecation, brow beating, etc. This negative introject, not being able to say no to people or assert myself, trying to "be nice" or at least to maintain the perception that I am a "nice guy", trying to get approval, all of these things are related issues for me, OSIT, but I haven't yet traced them to their root.

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Why were you relieved to read my response? I did ask for feedback, and you answered with honesty and insight. Do you think your sense of relief might have something to do with trying to be nice? Just to be clear, I'm asking for purposes of conversation, not because I'm trying to grill you. :)

People tell me that I am "so nice" all of the time as well. I have always felt uncomfortable when someone told me what a "nice guy" I am, even though I expend most of my energy trying to maintain that perception. In the past 6 months or so this discomfort has changed to a feeling of disgust/frustration. I expend most of my energy maintaining this mask, and I feel angry at myself when someone points it out to me. This indicates to me that this is feeding, a program designed to take something from someone else. If I were actually giving something of myself I wouldn't feel awful when people complemented me for it.

When I say yes to someone automatically, mechanically, without consideration, I lose energy. A mental fog sets in, sometimes for days (dissociation?), and I don't notice it is there until it leaves. Self deprecation, brow beating, etc. This negative introject, not being able to say no to people or assert myself, trying to "be nice" or at least to maintain the perception that I am a "nice guy", trying to get approval, all of these things are related issues for me, OSIT, but I haven't yet traced them to their root.

I was relieved because I didn't want to hurt your feelings and I wasn't sure how you would react to my comment. :D Was I being too nice? Perhaps some may say. ;)

I don't think being nice is so much of a mask for me as it is part of my personality that still needs to be worked on. I also feel a little uncomfortable when people notice it in me, because it reminds me that I still have work to do in that area. Becoming a teacher has helped because I certainly can't say yes to them all or else I would be taken advantage of on a regular basis. Hahaha, you should've seen me my first year teaching! Oh, goodness gracious! :P

You are right, being agreeable is such a mechanical thing, isn't it? I haven't traced mine to the root yet either, but I have attempted to. Were you always trying to please your parent or guardian when you were growing up? I was. Maybe that turned into me trying to please everyone else..? Hmm...