Art educational therapy was developed in Unnur Ottarsdottir's research, where the aim was to design, study and test an art therapy method that facilitates coursework learning and enhanced children's emotional well-being. The theory of art educational therapy is partly based on the theories of writing-images and memory drawing.

Systematic research comparing the effects of drawing and writing words for memory was carried out for the first time in the world in the year 2000 and was conducted by Unnur Ottarsdottir. To this day, no other research has been conducted globally that we know of on long-term memory and drawing for as long as three and nine weeks.

Unnur Ottarsdottir has used art making in her research, e.g. when creating diagrams and conceptual images as well as for emotional processing. She has reviewed the subject in published writings. Art making creates a space for the unknown, at the same time as it clears a way for the formation of new knowledge.