Katinka Tuisku
Books for children:
The Children of Sun and Moon, 2008
A Weird Creature, coming 2011
Katinka Tuisku is a finnish fairy tale writer, art-therapist, and psychiatrist. She is a mother of two children, stepmother for one and godmother for nine kids.
Katinka Tuisku aims at writing and illustrating therapeutic books for children and their parents. She wants to provide the parents, teachers and therapists with stories and pictures that arise discussion and reflection with the children on issues that are important in children's life but not easy to handle. Katinka Tuisku encourages the schools and families to let the children enjoy their own creative expression and shared art experiences which both feed their rich imagination and innate creativeness, coping skills, emotional and social growth, hope and self-esteem.
Katinka Tuisku wishes the art experiences to be shared together by children and their parents. Arts belong to people of all ages and classes. The idea of open museum brings together the ideas of art makers and spectators, enhances the dialogue between them and reverses the roles between them in an interactive way. Open museum is the topic of a the thesis of Mariana Salgado at the University of arts and crafts, more recently known as Aalto university.
As an example of an interactive arts exhibition, Gallery Maria celebrated he 20th annual of UN Children's rights by exhibiting the illustration of Katinka Tuisku's first book, "The Children of Sun and Moon". The exhibition, called "Secret of Nightingale" invited people of all ages and supported Save the Children Association of Finland. The youngest ones participated by marking their own symbols and comments on the acquarel landscapes of the fairy tale while listening to nightingale singing.
Some of Katinka Tuisku's paintings are inspired by poetry or interrelated to specific poems like the illustration of the book "The Children of Sun and Moon" honors the mystic metaphores of the poet Rabindranath Tagore and the exhibition "Versos de la Lluvia" owns gratitude for the poet Octavio Paz. Some of her paintings bear a more spiritual meaning like the "Watercolours of Easter" exhibited in Uspenski Cathedral.
Her books have been recommended by the leaders of Finnish Association of Bibliotherapy, Save the Children Association of Finland and The Finnish Association of Art psychotherapy, which is a member of The American Art Therapy Association and The British Association of Art.
"Bibliotherapy is the process of using books to help children think about, understand, and work through social and emotional concerns. Reading with children can be therapeutic.... Adults can use reading to help children come to grips with issues that create emotional turmoil for them. Reading can also be...very effective in preventing and resolving behavior problems." from Positive Child Guidance by Darla Ferris Miller
www.best-childrens-books.com/bibliotherapy.html
"A well integrated Bibliotherapy program, that improves reading skills and provides social and emotional guidance and instruction through reading content is presented as an optimal training model for teachers and counselors". Dr Darla Shaw and Dr. Aram Aslanian
www.hiceducation.org/Edu_Proceedings/Darla%20Shaw.pdf (pdf)
A handbook for Inspirational, seasonal art activities for young children with easily obtainable materials. Sandie Skyrme, Rainbow-Arts