What If Creativity Looked Like a Garden? with Dominique Begnaud
What if the most creative thing you did this year was grow something?
Dominique Begnaud is an art therapist in St. Louis who works with art, play, and gardening — and it's the gardening that we couldn't stop thinking about. She runs art and garden groups in community nonprofits and schools, and her practice is built on a simple idea: that tending something is a creative act.
In this conversation she gets specific about what making art with plants actually looks like and how this changes with the seasons. She talks about what happens when a client who struggles to stay present tries hammering flowers. And she tells us about building gardens where ever she can find space and how this changes therapy spaces and communities.
This is an art therapy podcast built around creative community, and Dominique's work is a reminder that community doesn't require a beautiful space. Sometimes it just requires a pot, a few seeds, and the patience to wait six weeks for something to happen.
In this episode, they discuss:
How flower pounding actually works, and what a hammer does for someone who has trouble staying in the present
The difference between saying gardening is your therapy and practicing gardening therapy, and why Dominique is careful about that line
The surprising places gardens can grow
Why she tells clients they can just try something once, with no commitment to ever doing it again
The one plant she thinks everyone should try growing, which is beautiful, edible, and works for both pressing and pounding
Resources & Links
Dominique Begnaud — therapy website and instagram
Bowood Farms, St. Louis
Episode about letting yourself be bad at something
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And this is your reminder that you don't have to be an artist to benefit from creativity. You're welcome, as you are, in this creative community.