“Countryside home sky in window”. (Photo courtesy of LMU event promotion page).
A vibrant pink torus rests atop a color-splotched rag, painted to resemble the torso of a woman. A large hole gapes between the breasts while a crack splits toward the heart, and though the torso does not bear a head, ten birthday candles rise from its neck. Through this piece, artist Jenna Siteman explored the human body as a vessel for time.
“[The body] is an anchor that carries us through time and space,” Siteman wrote in the description of her piece. “The bright pink form emphasizes the body’s presence as shelter, memory, and witness. Birthday candles rise from the top, evoking ritual and marking the passage of years, while also reminding us of life’s fragility and fleeting moments.”
Similar depictions of bodies and home were displayed throughout Loyola Marymount University’s (LMU) Thomas P. Kelly Jr. Student Art Gallery in the second-year art therapy graduate students’ exhibit, Home(Bodies). The exhibit ran from Sept. 1st through Sept. 17th. Through paintings and mixed media, artists explored their perceptions of community, home and identity.
Rudy Falagán, a Bachelor of Fine Arts graduate from Cal State University Northridge (CSUN) and University of Southern California (USC) and an art therapy graduate student at LMU, was heavily involved in the creation of this exhibit, working with fellow artists Becca Cuellar, Inah Mango, Jenifer Dang and Chloe Seeger to plan the gallery. Other art contributors included Jane Tse, Natasha Daniels, Ethel Zafranco, Charlie Tapia, Colter Engber, Reed Maruyama, Zoe Bell, Kennedy Cardenas, Jessica Guadalupe Ramirez, Rebecca Lauffenburger, Bentara Cabanayan, Carrie Chen and Jenna Siteman.
The process of planning and creating Home(Bodies) began at the end of the artists’ first year in Spring 2025, discussing possible themes. Falagán described that when settling and refining the ideas, the team wanted to encapsulate a “point of origin” that was broad enough for all artists to interpret.
“Initially, there was thinking about the concept of home, or bodies to bring in the human aspect of it. We also had ideas for roots, origins and a lot of similar concepts in terms of identity,” Falagán said. “Through an extensive voting process to make sure everybody had their voice heard, we concluded with Home(Bodies).”
The planning committee initially proposed a topic related to home because they knew that many students had been seeking comfort amidst current events, and they wanted to find a theme that could satisfy that need.
“There is a lot going on right now politically and culturally, and things are not great no matter what side you’re on in terms of quality of life,” Falagán said. “I think it is a lot of the instability in the outside world that made us want to focus on the idea of a point of origin and how that differs for everybody in the cohort because that is something that we can cling to right now.”
Knowing that “the concept of home is not always a pleasant one for some people,” Falagán wrote the group statement to expand the title, incorporating other overarching themes of identity, growth and community. As a result, Home(Bodies): Bodies Within, Worlds Beyond, showcased various interpretations as all artists brought their meaning to the studio.
Falagán’s interpretation of home centered around a current experience for him: repeatedly moving to new apartments as a student. His series of clay immaterialisms, or constructs of the physical world through his own understanding, consisted of life-size toys: a Beanie Baby bear, a Hot Wheels car, wired earbuds, Sillybandz bracelets and a Nintendo DS, batteries included. These were all items he had when he was younger and often still carries in cardboard boxes today.
“A lot of these items, I feel, get hidden away in junk drawers, but at the same time, they hold that fondness. If they come up while you’re moving, or if you discover them again, it’s not really something that you’re immediately keen to throw out. A lot of it is the idea that those things really exist when we perceive them, and they’re just in the house otherwise,” Falagán said.
His symbolism even incorporated the material he used to create the pieces. “I made them lifesized and sculpted them out of unfired clay because unfired clay is also very impermanent and can just dissolve if you add water, so I used that as a metaphor for the fact that [items in the home] are very impermanent.”
Like Falagán, the other artists also drew from their experiences of home and identity to create self-portraits, abstract paintings, nail art, a nearly proportional reconstruction of a neighborhood food stand, landscapes and more. Together, all of the artists worked to construct a large cupboard for them and gallery visitors to design 2D paper mugs or cups and hang them on the long painted shelves on a floating wall.
“As we were making it all come together, it was a lot of thinking about how the cohort itself works very hard to make the environment [comfortable and safe] and how to translate that feeling into the gallery,” Falagán said. He notes how “home” and “body” have specific connotations in talk therapy, as therapists inquire about patients’ home lives and often bring bodily differences to the forefront of patients’ identities. “A lot of what we wanted to do with this [exhibit] is move past those, and through that, be able to reference the original idea of what a home is and then transfer it into more of the art part of art therapy.”
Falagán spoke highly of the gallery process, noting how reconnecting with clay and seemingly lost objects was a healing experience, as both had been hidden away amidst constant moving and other school and art assignments.
LMU’s Marital and Family Therapy Art Therapy two-year graduate program was established in 1975 and has since trained students like Falagán to combine art and psychotherapy and work with people and families of all ages. Throughout their program, students develop their artistic craft while diving deeper into the therapeutic effects of art. In their final year, the art therapy students have the opportunity to exemplify what they have learned by planning and displaying their own exhibit, such as this year’s cohort’s Home(Bodies).
Through this program, Falagán has been further exposed to the benefits of art therapy, specifically in comparison to typical talk therapy.
“A lot of times in talk therapy, there is a lot of power in using words and thinking about language construction. When you get to more of the emotional parts of therapy, speaking about traumatic events or feelings you don’t have the words for, that is where art can come in,” Falagán said. “ The art can help take what they’re feeling inside and put it on paper or in the clay or whatever you’re using and have that be a way to express the emotion.”
Falagán personally experienced this difference between talk therapy and art therapy when he was younger, describing how his therapists supported his artistic pursuits after witnessing how the creative process helped him comprehend complex emotions and events. “I thought if it really helps me, maybe there’s a way I can use that to see if others can really benefit from art.”
The Home(Bodies) exhibit was a pivotal step for Falagán and the other contributing artists in their pursuit of helping people through art. While the exhibit has closed, the program’s students welcome questions and curiosity about art therapy and the graduate courses. They encourage others to explore art as a therapeutic process.
