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18x20 inches, acrylic on canvas. This painting was created using the "El Duende" process during Professional Seminar I class. It helped me to visually reflect on where I was each week in response to my internship experiences. For many weeks, I felt underwater or craving structure; this process led me to a resolution of “both,” “and.” This work, when mixed with life, is deep, murky, swimming, glowing, and changeable, yet ideally anchored, loosely structured, and balanced. 

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12x16, mixed-media. This piece represents my journey connecting with my ancestors. My spirituality and ancestral roots have been an important part of my journey throughout the art therapy and counseling program as well as throughout my internship.I've looked to the cosmos for guidance and support every step along the way. This piece is the result of about 16 hours of painting while exploring my ancestral connections and spirituality.

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24X36, acrylic on canvas, beads, felt, and paper. This piece represents my El Duende process during professional seminar class I. I was able to look at where I was at professionally and personally, and see what I needed to change with myself. This piece took about 20 hours of work. 

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17x17 inches. This is a needle felted tapestry for my Capstone B project. I made needle felted squares as response art for some of some of my clients that have impacted my learning the most. This is a way that I can show some reflection and gratitude for those clients that have been instrumental in helping me at the beginning stages of forming my art therapist identity.

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30x24 inches, acrylic on canvas. This painting was done as an "El Duende" process last quarter during my Professional Seminar I class. Every week the painting would evolve and transform in a very intuitive way. The Bear image connects to a fairy tale called East of the Sun and West of the Moon. This is a fairy tale that has been woven throughout my life. It is a story of an epic and courageous journey of self-discover. Symbolic of how I have felt about my journey here at SWC and especially during field training.

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14X14, glass seed beads, shells, and freshwater pearls on linen. I created this piece for my Capstone B project. By engaging in the time-consuming process of bead embroidery, I intentionally carved out space each evening to reflect deeply on my work with my clients and my professional development. I explored four different approaches to portraying the same subject matter in order to illustrate the multiple lenses through which I might view my clients and their challenges. My internship has been a period of experimentation, and through both mistakes and successes, I have learned that I am most effective when I listen to my intuition and adapt my approach to meet each client's unique needs.

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20X30 Fabric, glass beads, paper, ribbon and thread on altered oil paintings. This mixed-media El Duende process provided much-needed opportunities for play and creative challenges. I wove together my development as an artist, a student, and a counselor/art therapist. Within this image are symbols representing myself and each of the clients I was privileged to work during my internships. The layered materials and textures mirror the complexities of these relationships and allowed me to honor my clients' journeys as they intersected with my own evolution.

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24x36, acrylic. This painting was made during my Professional Seminar I class. I engaged in a process where I captured symbols and themes that reflected what was going on each week during internship. The final product holds themes of mysticism, a sense of longing, and the wild woman archetype. 

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30x40 Acrylic on Canvas, this was the finished piece of "El Duende" process for seminar class part one. This class felt so alive with compassion, support, vulnerability and explorative heart with all the group's engagement. The painting seems to reflect this to me in it’s aliveness at this completed stage. It served as a constant thread through growing challenges and celebrations alongside classmates. I found grounding in the tree and in the consistent response-art process. The painting seems to dance and sway and the owl as a symbol to trust the inner voice.

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24x36 in. acrylic on canvas. El Duende Process. Allowing for the ebb and flow. Acceptance for what I don't know. The butterfly shows me how to be gentle with myself. The butterfly shows impermanence and beauty in change. We get to be in this world together, and I'll follow her illusive lead because she's kind of hard to follow. That just tells me I am capable of so much and she knows this too. She'll always arrive in my heart when I need her the most. I honor this path with all of its steep mountain trails, potential bear encounters, beautiful meadows full of wildflowers, and unexpected peace.

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The Arc of Passage (2025). Tracy A. Kump. 24" X 36" Canvas. Acrylic paint on canvas.  This was part of the El Duende Process in Professional Seminar I.  It speaks to being heart-centered, attuned to the rhythms of soul, and holding space for clients. It also speaks to the feminine rising from the depth carried through my heart space toward new light. The arc symbolizes this passage of becoming. It's a reminder that each journey is deeply personal and connected to something vaster than ourselves. 

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Midwifing the Soul. (2025) Tracy A. Kump. 12" x 16" Canvas. Black Gesso. Acrylic paint, oil pastels. This art work was created as part of the Capstone B project. I used active imagination to amplify symbolism from a series of dreams I had during the field work. The potent imagery includes a pregnant woman, a leaf, a river, and other grounding elements of nature. The artwork points to the idea of a counselor/art therapist helping clients through transitions and liminal times. These thresholds can be disorienting for the ego yet potent and transformational. 

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16x20 mixed media (2025) This piece is a reflection on the intersection of healing and creation. As I worked through layers of mixed media, I confronted my own resistance and fear, mirroring the early stages of change I witness in my clients. The process became a metaphor for integration: layering, puncturing, weaving, sowing, scraping, gluing, cutting, carving, brushing, sprinkling, tearing, and arranging together fragmented parts of the self through texture, nature, and intention. In both therapy and art, storytelling, embodiment, and truth-telling converge to create UNiDAD (unity). Each layer is an act of courage, a step toward healing, and a reclaiming authentic expression.

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8x11 digital collage (2024) This piece honors María Sabina, my ancestral guide, a revered Mazatec healer who believed that the medicine we seek already lives within us. Her life, marked by adversity, loss, and resilience, reminds us that healing is both ancestral and deeply personal. Through her sacred relationship with Los Niños Sagrados (psilocybin mushrooms), she taught that these medicines do not give us something new, but simply awaken what we already carry. Viewing this image reminds me of my role as a therapist. I’ve come to understand that, like Los Niños, we as therapists help illuminate the path for others. We do not heal for them, rather we help them remember their own medicine. This work is a tribute to that wisdom: a reminder that we are the medicine.

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8x10 Acrylic Paint on Canvas (2025) This piece emerged during a group art activity I facilitated with adolescents, where I found myself navigating low affect and emotional disconnection in the room. As I modeled art-making to support the group, the process became both a tool for co-regulation and a personal act of surrender. Together, we created a community piece centered on a shared theme: addressing social injustice, particularly bullying. Through this experience, I became more aware of the need to establish energetic boundaries—to hold space without absorbing the emotional weight of others. This work reflects that moment of awareness, intention, and collective healing.

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36 x 36, acrylic paint. This is the final image from the El Duende process of Professional Seminar I class and it reflects a major lesson I am incorporating into my role as a counselor; holding space. When a client dedicates time with me, that is a sacred trust, a ritual for self-awareness and growth. As the one providing such a space, I am learning how to be present in authentic and professional ways. I expand my capacity with open, non judgemental curiosity. I understand the importance of polishing the mirror of self to reflect what clients are saying. Buffing out counter transference as it rises within, I can parse out my personal journey and use that information for my own work. I suspect this ability will continue to be exercised throughout my career as a counselor. The great mystery of intuition demands trust in self and process. Each client that enters my practice gives me opportunities to develop. Strengthening my ability to pause and slowdown has been my focus and this final image holds personal symbols to remind me that this is an ongoing life long process. 

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24x 36. Mixed media painting: acrylic paint, wood, twine, and wire. A personal study on stress and resiliency during the intern experience. A window into madness and an outlet for stress.

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2 ft. X 2 ft., Acrylic on wood panel with digital art layers and GIF animation.  Throughout my art therapy internship, I painted this geometric abstraction, entitled “Merkabah”, in honor of the Jewish mystical tradition. Following the “El Duende” approach, I painted a new layer each week in response to my internship experience. My painting process combined techniques such as rubber stamping, taping hard edges, paint pouring, air brushing, and glazing. While my painting is still far from completion, I feel that it represents a point in my professional development where I have refined my therapeutic approach into something more resolved and confident. Over the past six months, I have reflected on all the temporal layers of my painting and the internship lessons they represent.  While I am still far from my ultimate goal of becoming an independently licensed psychedelic art therapist, I now recognize my emergence as an initiated clinician. As a Jewish Southwestern graduate, this initiation feels like an ascent to a higher consciousness, in which the union of my "Mer" (light), "Ka" (spirit), and "Ba" (body) is serving as a vehicle for transformation and healing.

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2 ft. X 2 ft., Acrylic on wood panel, (Work in progress).  Throughout my art therapy internship, I painted this geometric abstraction, entitled “Merkabah”, in honor of the Jewish mystical tradition. Following the “El Duende” approach, I painted a new layer each week in response to my internship experience. My painting process combined techniques such as rubber stamping, taping hard edges, paint pouring, air brushing, and glazing. While my painting is still far from completion, I feel that it represents a point in my professional development where I have refined my therapeutic approach into something more resolved and confident. Over the past six months, I have reflected on all the temporal layers of my painting and the internship lessons they represent.  While I am still far from my ultimate goal of becoming an independently licensed psychedelic art therapist, I now recognize my emergence as an initiated clinician. As a Jewish Southwestern graduate, this initiation feels like an ascent to a higher consciousness, in which the union of my "Mer" (light), "Ka" (spirit), and "Ba" (body) is serving as a vehicle for transformation and healing.

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"Blood on My Hands" is a visual study of transformation, detachment, and the loss of control over what we create. It is done with acrylic paint, charcoal, and paper mache. It begins with the quiet precision of graphite: a hand, drawn with intent, contained by the borders of the canvas. But as the sequence progresses, the drawing begins to shift, no longer confined to its medium or origin. It thickens, distorts, and gains mass. By the final panel, it is no longer a drawing at all, but something fleshy, violent, and autonomous—dripping with blood, no longer passive, no longer still. This work explores what happens when creation exceeds intention—when what we make develops its own reality, its own consequences. The hand, once just a mark on a page, becomes a symbol of action, of agency, of something that can't be erased. It’s no longer about the hand; it is the hand, acting without permission, implicating both the artist and the viewer in its evolution. The final panel, bold, red, irreversible, is not just an ending, but a confrontation. It asks: what have we made, and can we still claim it as ours?"Blood on My Hands" is about authorship, loss of control, and the point at which creation escapes intention—becoming something other, something real.

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In Songs No One Remembers, memory, sound, and imagery collapse into circular fragments, each record a world spinning in silence. Once vessels for music, these vinyl records now carry visual stories: dreamlike, disjointed, and haunted by what’s been forgotten. The first piece shows a woman submerged, drowning beneath an invisible weight. Her struggle is silent, suspended in a disc that once held melody. It’s a portrait of isolation, of being overwhelmed in a world that keeps spinning. The second scene fractures into surreal absurdity: a black hole opens in the surface of the record, and a cat, unfazed, fishes for an eyeball. This playful yet eerie tableau touches on curiosity, consumption, and the strange humor that emerges when we look into darkness too long. It's both whimsical and ominous; a nod to the subconscious pulling forgotten images from deep within. The final piece offers contrast: a quiet forest lit with mysterious lights. It holds stillness and wonder, like the fading echo of a lullaby you can’t quite place. The trees whisper, the lights flicker, and the record turns, suggesting something just beyond memory. Each record in this series is a forgotten song; scratched, repurposed, made visual. What was once heard is now seen, and in that transformation, something intangible is preserved. These are not narratives with clear beginnings or ends. They are visual echoes, half-dreams salvaged from the grooves of time. Songs No One Remembers is about the persistence of forgotten things, the surrealism of memory, and the stories buried in obsolete objects.

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14x18, Digital Drawing. This piece is the culmination of my El Duende process. Each smaller image represents a single week—capturing a constellation I created as a symbol of what emerged in my client work or in my own development during that time. On the right, those weekly constellations stand alone. The larger image brings them all together into one night sky, showing how the individual moments—week by week—connect to form a greater galaxy.The sealed envelope feels like a symbol of closure: the work is done, gathered, and sent out into the world, even if its destination is unseen. Outside of the window, the stars and moon remind me that what I’ve created is part of something larger: a constellation of weeks, moments, and lessons that now exist beyond me. There’s comfort in knowing that even as one season ends, the night sky keeps expanding. I think the final piece holds both the weight of completion and the spaciousness of what comes next.

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2025, oil pastels on paper. This artwork was created as a part of my Capstone B process which centered on grief, loss, and art. The drawing shows gardenia flowers with water falling all around them and creating a puddle underneath. This work encapsulates my view and experience of loss and grief when I don't allow myself to soak in the tears, the support, the uncertainty... anything which comes with grief and loss. While the flowers still look 'alive' right now they will soon start to wilt from the lack of attention. Forcing attention to be given to them. We, I, must slow down and allow myself to sit with whatever is present... soaking in the water and nourishment.

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24" x 37", acrylic on plywood panel. This piece has been built and reduced over the course of 20 weeks of internship, as part of Professional Seminar I and II. Where it pauses now is in the moment of something true unfurling, a dream of healing for the world. In the center is a silent portal to the stars: it is both the source of the bloom and the vacuum that consumes it. This ouroboric image clarifies my commitment to healing work, endeavored not in spite of the challenges of our time, but in collaboration with them. The layers hold for me a stance of acceptance that may prove necessary, if I'm to sustain action in the apparent chaos of this nonlinear story of transformation (life).

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The layers in my painting symbolize the many layers of a client’s inner world, as well as the growth and insight that unfold through the therapeutic process. 
Connections represent the relationships I have built with clients that nurture healing, learning, and self-discovery. Together, layers and connections illustrate how art therapy weaves depth and meaning into both my personal and professional growth.
As I painted each week, the layers, textures, movement, and colors deepened, gradually becoming a mirror of my internship experience. Each time I shifted the canvas from vertical to horizontal, I found myself gaining a fresh perspective not only on the painting itself but also on the week that had passed. The act of painting became a meditative space for reflection, allowing me to process and reframe my experiences.
The textures in the piece remind me that mistakes are not flaws, but rather powerful opportunities for growth and discovery. The sense of movement across the canvas speaks to the ongoing transformation I am undergoing, each experience shaping and reshaping my evolving identity as an art therapist. What amazed me most was how, over the course of the quarter, imagery seemed to surface subconsciously emerging from the process in ways that both surprised and guided me.

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Layers, Texture, and Movement. 24x36 Canvas/Acrylic paint/Coarse Pumice Gel, beads, metallic string

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Layers, Texture, and Movement. 24x36 Canvas/Acrylic paint/Coarse Pumice Gel, beads, metallic string

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I began tearing an old watercolor painting I had created when I first started at SWC. Then I started arranging the pieces on my paper without any specific plan. Once I finished, I added tiny rhinestones to each torn section, which brought the torn pieces alive. As I took a moment to step back and look at my creation, I saw that the watercolor shapes resembled images of birds and fish, with the rhinestones serving as their eyes. In my collage, the birds symbolize ideas that take flight and carry a sense of possibilities, embody hope, inspiration, and the dreams that will guide me toward the future as an art therapist. The fish symbolizes the ability to dive beneath the surface, which shapes my understanding of myself by becoming self-aware of my feelings and emotions that will help me become a better art therapist. They guide me toward sources of inspiration and dreams. With Mixed media, I created a symbolic landscape full of meaningful imagery. Each element on the map was chosen with care, some reflecting internal doubts and moments of uncertainty, while others represented sources of resilience, inspiration, and support.

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Dive Deep, Soar High 18x24 Watercolor Paper, Watercolor paints, Mixed Media for Collage- magazine, yarn, sand, decorative paper, glass bottles, beads string, and butterflies

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Dive Deep, Soar High 18x24 Watercolor Paper, Watercolor paints, Mixed Media for Collage- magazine, yarn, sand, decorative paper, glass bottles, beads string, and butterflies

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This piece emerged through my Professional Seminar I El Duende process, traveling with me as I stepped into internship at Solace Sexual Assault Services and wove in my clinical work at Enchanted Sky Hospice. The early images—flowers, squiggles, layered colors—were painted over, yet they remain alive in the spirit of the piece, forming unseen foundations beneath the surface. Out of these hidden layers arose a blue heron and a white snake, messengers of steadiness, protection, adaptability, and transformation. The textures, buried layers, and muddy foundations echo the complexity of trauma work, while the sparkles, intuitive marks, and playful squiggles remind me of resilience, regulation, and creative flow returning. This painting became both companion and chaperone—bearing witness to crisis, healing, and the layered magic of becoming a counselor.

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The Crane’s Chaperone. 24” x 48” acrylic and mixed media on canvas.

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The Crane’s Chaperone. 24” x 48” acrylic and mixed media on canvas.

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24x36, acrylic and paper on canvas. I created this work through the El Duende process for Professional Seminar I. It is a culmination of my experiences across Internship I with themes of awe, growth, ancestral healing, and embracing and integrating the shadow.

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“A is for Anything” (2025) 18.5 inches x 14 inches x 3 inches; recycled polyfill fiber, multicolored wool. “A is for Anything” was created for a part of my capstone project, in which I investigated the therapeutic potential of artistic concepts such as Kitsch or Camp through fiber materials. I used a dry needle felting techniques to build the form and add appropriately garish colors, such as chartreuse and magenta. Working with a “campy” theme allowed me to express a playful and Queer identity that I’ve strengthened throughout my clinical work. I was able to professionally integrate this identity through the process of using fiber materials, specifically through the process of dry needle felting. For myself, the creative process was cathartic and allowed me to unearth and cycle through intense emotions- while the product was lighthearted and materially gentle. I find parallels to the therapeutic process: A visceral, strenuous process that leads to a soft, gentle outcome. Through its creation process and final product, this piece acts as a container for emotional catharsis and integration that I can offer to my future self and my clients.

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“Stage 5:” (2025) 12 inches x 9 inches; colored pencils, paper, paperboard for matting. “Stage 5:” was the first artwork I created for my capstone project. Using drawing materials, I explored the art historical movement of Formalism and utilized the artistic elements and principles to create an abstraction of relationship development. The piece depicts the laborious process of maintaining connection and personal identity through its visual contrast, movement, form, and space. It’s through this that my current relationship with art-making is represented, as well as my hope for my future therapeutic practice. My selfhood, depicted through the red form, is complemented and strengthened through the backdrop of my work, represented by the green gradient. The process of creating this piece took great effort- effort that I perceive as necessary to sustain my sense of self when engaging with art-making or client work.

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18x24", acrylic and paper mache on canvas. This is my El Duende art process, which reflects the beginning of my internship experience. It is hard to believe that this started as a little sprout and transformed into a mountain. Much of this process was intended to give myself an opportunity to practice self-care through artmaking and explore my artist identity. While I did accomplish this, I realized the importance of finding time for my own creativity to flow freely. I noticed my internship work in an adult residential depression recovery program started to influence my creative process. I was struggling to make sense of my experiences on canvas with paint. The first art directive I start my residents with is a paper mache self-concept mask, which many people cringe at when I introduce it to them. Many of those people are the same people who end up enjoying the process and find it to be grounding despite the texture. This is when I added the paper mache mountains for several weeks. After the paper mache dried, I realized the canvas weighed significantly more now. When reflecting on this with my supervisor, she helped me notice how I was able to transfer the weight of the internship onto the canvas. The art process served as a catalyst to transform the emotional weight of juggling a full-time internship, a part-time job, and classwork into physical weight on the canvas. The amount of energy, intention, and creativity I felt flowing through my body as I did this enhanced the transformation and allowed me to release the tension I was holding in my shoulders and neck area. I felt more at ease in my body and was about to give myself more compassion after feeling the physical weight I had not realized I was carrying emotionally.Follow your art, for it is the path to the soul's spirit.

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"Catch & Release" (2025) 24x36 in. acrylic on canvas. El Duende. This piece, and this process, showed me how far I’ve come. From raw grief to creative healing. From personal pain to professional presence. I’m learning to bridge those spaces gently, to show up for others not in spite of my loss, but with it as part of my foundation. It’s helped me understand that grief doesn’t go away, but it shifts, and that growth can happen even in the most broken places. I’m starting to believe that maybe healing looks a little like this: a hidden carving on the back of the canvas, a bee on the moon, a laugh when you least expect it, and the quiet knowing that you’ve made it this far, and you’re still becoming.

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Mixed-media. This piece was created during the Professional Seminar: Professional Identity Development course. It reflects the ongoing journey of exploring and embracing my identity, both as a therapist and as an individual. The process has been both challenging and deeply rewarding, and this work serves as a reminder to move with patience, presence, and openness, and to embrace all that is meant to be absorbed. Through acrylic and collage, I was able to capture the emotions, layers, and meaning that arise along the path of growth and self-discovery.

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Acrylic on Canvas. This piece was created during the Professional Seminar: Professional Orientation, as part of the El Duende process. My goal in creating this artwork was to let go and allow it to flow naturally. I was often on the go and felt overwhelmed during the last phase of my internship, so I focused on releasing that overwhelm. Using acrylic paint on canvas, I was guided to create using therapeutic techniques, layering paint week by week without concern for the final appearance. 

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Mixed Media. This artwork was created during the Capstone B course and was deeply inspired by the creative energy of working alongside a group. It reflects my time at Southwestern, the personal growth I have experienced, and, most of all, the shared connections and collective spirit that shaped this journey.

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18"x24", acrylic on canvas. This is my piece from both of my professional seminar El duende precesses. It serves as a visual time capsule documenting my last year working as a clinician and the counter transference I experienced as well as the frustrations that occurred. I found it to be a place to explore finding comfort and stability when struggling to name what that would look like in my life at large

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24x36, oil on canvas. This was my first time trying oils for the "El Duende" process during Professional Seminar I. The completed piece is a self portrait of sorts in that the woman represents a "head in the clouds" feeling. I tend to get lost in my own thoughts, overanalyze myself, and doubt myself from time to time because the fear of the unknown can be a strong feeling in my life. This painting went through many stages of deciding how much I wanted the woman's face to peek through. One night I heard an owl that lives on one of my trees outside that out and I found so much comfort from it. I hear it all the time. Through the fogginess of my process I met this owl and it grounded me to think about the owl as my spirit guiding me, telling me that everything is going to be ok and not knowing is ok. I continue to use this as a personal and professional reminder to trust myself and my intuition. 