[gallery td_select_gallery_slide="slide" ids="61723,61722,61721"] Saudi Gazette report Noor Al-Ahmadi still remembers how the suffering induced by her mother's cancer treatment was slowly draining her of energy and the zest for life she once had. Al-Ahmadi had to find a way to alleviate her mother's excruciating pain. The solution came in the form of art therapy. A plastic artist by profession, Al-Ahmadi started to paint in front of her mother and the results, while gradual, had a profound effect on the woman's health. "As time went by, my mother's psychological state started to get better; she was no longer that sad woman who felt great pain. This is when I realized that plastic art can be an effective therapy," she recalled. While her mother eventually succumbed to cancer, Al-Ahmadi had firsthand experience of how art can help patients and was determined to study art more so she could help other patients. Today, Al-Ahmadi is an art therapist at Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Humanitarian City in Riyadh where she works with disabled patients. Colors White color symbolizes compassion and mercy and more specifically the profession of medicine. To her, this color represents purity and kindness and a strong motive to cling on to life. "Shortly before my mother's death, colors did not mean anything to me. Life no longer appeared appealing to me. The sight of my mother suffering had taken its toll on me. But I decided to be strong for her and had to find a way to make her feel better. All of a sudden colors started to mean everything to me. I discovered that colors can have different meanings," she reminisced. Al-Ahmadi considers black as the color of elegance, noting that to some people this color represents sadness and depression. "Each person views colors from a certain perspective; for example, some view red as the color of love while others as the color of blood, murder and torture. It all boils down to perspective," she added. Noor's Art A 2005 graduate of Goldsmiths, University of London, Al-Ahmadi set up the plastic art therapy department at the hospital where she works and formed a group called "Noor's Art" to promote art therapy. She has helped heal dozens of patients, including a little girl who suffered from polio. Al-Ahmadi helped the girl learn plastic art and showed her how art can help humans vent their energy and bottled-up feelings. Colors can help patients battling cancer, disabilities and other illnesses. Art therapy can also correct the behavior of children who suffer from psychological and behavioral problems. "We can deliver a positive message to a patient indirectly through art therapy. Plastic art can help us instill good values in children's minds. For example, we can teach children not to waste food by creating an art work showing little children eating and taking the extra food to the poor after finishing their meal," she explained. Al-Ahmadi has big dreams and ambitions. She wants to promote plastic art as a form of therapy all over the Kingdom and in the wider Gulf region so that any patient who needs it can have easy access to it.
