Abby Oxford Art Therapy Symposium: April 10, 2026, 9am-12:30pm

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is doing well, especially with the weather starting to get warmer. With all the beautiful nature blossoming as spring is coming, it is easy to find inspiration to make, create, and use nature in our art! That brings me to the main point of Abby Oxford’s symposium, “Beauty in the Imperfections,” where she talked about taking things she found in nature and making them into beautiful art pieces.

Some quick background. As a child, Abby would always explore the area around her house; she would stumble upon old houses and barns that drew her in. The pieces she would find held a lot of history and told their story in the way they were naturally going through time. Objects she would find were nature-driven; they had natural shapes, colors, textures, and natural aging. Even as an adult, Abby says she finds objects in the woods, creeks, and shorelines, and finds comfort, inspiration, and joy in this. Her jewelry and art making are made from found objects, even fragments of whole objects.

Today, Abby still makes time for her to find the joy in finding objects and turning them into something not only beautiful, but also meaningful to her. As an art therapist herself, she finds the time to make sure that she takes care of herself, and finding objects and turning them into beautiful art is how she does that. Abby mentioned how her son was leaving, and it was really hard on her, so to help her process this hard transition, she went out and found some objects that she made into art.

The main philosophy she follows is Wabi Sabi, which is when there is a sense of imperfection and incompleteness, but it still brings a feeling. With this philosophy, Abby explained that she is more drawn to broken pieces. They tell a story, they are impermanent, imperfect and incomplete. With this philosophy and her main attention being drawn to broken pieces, she follows 3 types of repair when creating a new piece of art using these broken pieces.

• Yobitsugi: repaired by choice of broken pieces, the person chooses how to repair; you can take pieces from other broken objects and you don’t even need all the pieces, it can be filled with joinery of your choosingAbby uses these different types of repair to build up found objects together. She uses this philosophy in her art therapy. That sense of feeling broken, giving them pieces, and having them make art with them. Some pieces can be replaced with something else to fit better.
• Kintsugi: repaired by golden joinery to represent what was broken; these pieces are typically from the same object
• Gintsugi: repaired by silver joinery to represent what was broken; these pieces are typically from the same object

As an art therapist herself, Abby explains that she chooses how she repairs and creates. Some of these found objects get turned into pendants. One thing that she likes about creating is that there are imperfections that are out of her control, especially when she grows metal by electroforming some of her found objects. She honors each piece that she makes, and she likes to think of her pieces as part of the process of transitional times in her life.

She uses nature-found materials such as ferns, leaves, found pottery, glass, and other similar materials. Abby mentioned that she honors her art and inspires others who look at her work. She takes temporary objects in nature and found objects and makes them into permanent pendants.

Abby finds beauty in art making. There is something significant about what she creates; she allows herself to create, something came from that art-making experience, and you can even make something special for yourself that has meaning to you. People should hold space to create and reflect on the found objects, then find meaning for yourself in those objects.

After her presentation, we had some time to create a piece of art using some found objects ourselves. It was nice to take some time to gather objects that spoke to me and create a piece of art.

As for me, listening to this symposium was stabilizing in a way. I was always worried about not having the time or creativity to make art myself, but having Abby explain that even though she has clients, she still makes time for herself to make art that she loves. She uses her art therapy for herself when she needs to process a change in her life. I will keep this in the back of my mind as I continue my journey to become an art therapist. It was really inspiring to hear her talk about her experiences and be vulnerable to her own life, not just keeping her therapy philosophy just for her clients.

Thank you for taking the time to read! Maybe you can find some objects yourself and create new art; whether it’s to help you process something or just to try it for yourself!

Remember, take time for yourself,

~ Emma