SC NAMI Art Therapy Represents

This past weekend SC Mid-lands NAMI organization participated in the NAMI walk to spread awareness about mental health and where to seek help.  I volunteered along with a few other art therapist I've recently met in the Columbia area to create a giant chalk mandala to celebrate at the end of the NAMI walk.

I've never made a giant mandala so it was pretty neat helping with that process.  The design was created by one of the art therapist and it was beautiful.  It took us about 2 hours to create the basic outline and mark the outline with color.   Then we slowly filled in a couple of areas to give participants an idea of what the activity was all about.  As people came to the finish they started joining us in coloring the mandala.  Many children participated and spent a long time coloring while quite a few adults of all ages also participated. Adults were more reserved at first and often colored a small portion. They seemed afraid to "mess up" while the children had no such fear and went to town.   The difference as we get older and our reservations was a neat process to see. We were right in front of the stage so we got to see all of the awards and dancing going on as part of the celebration.  I also got to see some coworkers which was cool.

The end result was awesome. If you want to know how to make a giant chalk mandala send me message and I'll try to write step by step instructions.

Connecting Through Art

Most recently I haven't had a lot of time to create (which has been a source of disspointment this summer).  What I have done is still try to connect through art activities with others.

Relating to earlier posts, I've participated in another global community swap utilizing inspirational hands. I started receiving some in the mail over the past week and have indeed found them inspirational. Especially at a time when I've felt so hectic and hurried all of the time. Viewing them gives me a moment to enjoy and reflect upont the messages sent to me.

Another ongoing project was a local fundraiser for the Rochester Contemporary Art Center. This is the 7th annual 6x6 fundraiser. It's become not only a local but global form of connecting through art. Each year I create and donate pieces for the fundraiser and purchase a piece.  I was excited to make it down to ROCO in person and choose my piece. I absolutely love the piece I chose. This year instead of waiting until mid-July when you pick up your piece to find out who the artist is, once you purchased the piece you received the information. Ironically, once again I chose a person not only from Rochester but who lives one street over from me.  I find this totally insane as each year this is over 5,000 pieces of artwork from 50 states and 26 countries and all 7 pieces I have chosen are from artist in Rochester and 3 of the pieces I've come from people that have lived within one of me.  What a small world it is!

Disappointing news is that in a earlier post I mentioned participating in the Global Peace Art Project Exchange. I created my piece in Jan/Feb and mailed out in April to my match which was in India. However, I never received anything from them or an email from them about my piece.  Recently I emailed the person (although I have no idea if they could read English) but haven't heard anything in response.  This is a big bummer as I was really excited to see what they created and feedback on my piece. I contacted the site and they may have someone that can exchange a piece with me but it's not the same.

I conduct art therapy groups with developmentally disabled children and adolescents and facilitated a group last night. For the art therapy session I found old pieces of wood from a barn, floor boards, recycled from house projects, and so and then had each resident paint a piece.  Once the pieces were dry the group worked together to create how they wanted to put each piece of wood together to create one large art piece.  They then experienced using a hammer and nails to adhere the pieces together (this was done with assistance and supervision).  I think most of their favorite part was the hammering and nailing of the pieces.  The end project was varnished and the group determined that they wanted to place the piece in one of the outside gardens they were creating. I forgot to take a picture of the final piece but here's a pic I found on the internet that was my inspiration for this group art therapy session.

Art and Adventure Updates!

This past week was crazy busy but wonderful all the same.  As the end of the academic year winds down and the summer moves forward I find myself wrapping up the old and thinking about the new.  Below are updates on what I've done recently and where I'm heading this summer.

 Work related wrap up and coming adventures:
1.  We had our annual Student Development luncheon this past Friday.  Unexpectedly, I was given the Student Development Staff of the Year Award! This was awesome to receive after a busy adventurous work year.  I few years ago I won the New SD Staff of the Year award and never thought I'd get another award. It was a very pleasant surprise.

• Here's the leftovers from the SD luncheon. I got enough to feed my mom and I. Yummy!!! Oh we had already ate the cannoli's for breakfast!

• My art therapy intern (who was extremely good) surprised me on our last group day and gave me this awesome t-shirt!

2. I finished my grad classes for this semester and next week will start my 3 day a week internship that will go for about 10 weeks this summer. A week after that I will start my summer class which will go for 6 weeks 2 nights a week. yuck! However, it seems like a useful class. I'm looking forward to both.  Even better is that after this summer I will have one class left, my capstone/thesis next spring.

3.  I'll be teaching an ACS class (freshman seminar) in the fall and am looking forward to this new adventure.

4. I'm working with a professor of mine to develop a research paper on creating a creative arts therapy program within a counseling center in higher education. Specifically I'll be taking a look at my data on the art therapy groups I offer to reduce stress and tying them into the self-authorship theory of student development. My goal is to publish the paper in a higher edu. related journal and put out a proposal this fall to present at the AATA conference on my program next summer.


Updates from this past week on art and other adventures and upcoming adventures.
1.  I received my 10th and 11th zendoodles from the Art Community Swap. These came from Mexico and Bolivia. Just waiting on one more.  I signed up for the next swap so stay tuned to see what I create and what I receive.

2.  I was a juror for the Mental Health Association Creative Wellness Coalition annual art show "Serendipity" this past Friday night.  The art work chosen will be presented at the Memorial Art Gallery on May 13th in conjunction with the opening of the Reel Mind movie series.  This is my 2nd year being a juror and I love the opportunity. The Creative Wellness Coalition is an amazing free resource in the Rochester community for those struggling with the affects of mental illness. This event and the Reel Mind series shows the public that people are more than their illness. http://www.mharochester.org/Default.aspx?RD=1801

3. My mom came up for a girls pamper weekend. We had a very busy awesome weekend.  Here was our line up of great things that we participated in:

• 50 min. Massages at Onondaga School of Massage (mine was amazing and I signed up for my first 100 min. massage at the end of the month with this person because she was so amazing.) http://www.ostm.edu/
• We unexpectedly came across the Mayday! An underground Crafts + Art festival. This was it's 9th semiannual show and yet it's the first time I've heard of or been to this show.  It was held at the Village Gate which is a perfect venue for the show. There was around 60 different venders exhibiting all handmade arts and crafts. You can check them out at; MaydayUnderground.Wordpress.com. Highly recommend.

• We then went to my neighborhood's biannual yard sales.  Of course we have yet to experience spring here in Rochester so it was a cold and rainy day. Because of this there was only about a quarter of the amount of yard sales that there normally is. However, my mom and I still got some great finds! See future art adventures for further info. on what I found.
• Saturday we found ourselves at Veritas Wine bar; http://www.yelp.com/biz/veritas-wine-bar-rochester.  I had purchased a groupon a while back with the intention of it being a neat new place for my mom and I to check out.  So we went and had our glass of wine, chocolates and macaroons.  It's a quaint little place with a front room, and a comfy back room.  While we were there a huge thunder and lightening storm occurred. When we left we were shocked to see huge hail balls all over the place. Global warming anyone?

• Sunday we woke up and got pedicures at TK Salon. I love the woman who manages the place and provides most of the services.  My feet were a hot mess from all of the months of distance running while training for the half marathon. She worked miracles on my feet. She did mention they were pretty beaten up and I should get a pedicure like every 2 weeks in order to regain my cute feet. Something tells me that won't happen.  Well, at least my feet loved the attention!  I even talked by mom into getting a chic haircut there. Even my dad noticed and complimented her when she got home. http://www.yelp.com/biz/tk-salon-monroe-county

Before: 5 black and blue toenails. The picture doesn't do it justice. I also had lost one of the toenail's Christmas Day.

After: Amazing!!!

4. So, adventures for this summer include: 

• I purchased a ton of patio pavers from someone off of craigslist a week ago and I started to dig last night. My goal is to expand my brick patio I built last summer. Boy, with all of the rain I thought it would be easy digging, unfortunately being wet makes the soil very heavy. This is going to be a process.
• At some yard sales I picked up a cute little kids bench and a sturdy little wooden stool.The total was 5 bucks. I'm going to repaint them both and put them out at my Little Free Library.  My homemade bench and stool are a little wobbly. ;)
• I'll be heading to Ann Arbor, MI in July to visit my new friends. I'll be there during the huge Arts Festival they have annually and we may go sky diving. http://theguild.org/art-fairs/ann-arbor-art-fair/
• I'll also be heading to SC for a couple of weeks to hang with my nephew and to be there for my nieces birth. This is a highlight to my summer!
• I've mentioned in a previous blog entry that I'll be at least partaking in a few fun runs this summer. I'm sure more will be added as the summer progresses. 
• I also have plans to attend some art related classes at The Brainery and the Arts and Crafts meetup group. Just have to find some classes that match my free time.

Updates

I've registered for one race this year so far. It's the Puppy Love Virtual 10k. It benefits the Humane Society. Here's the information: http://www.active.com/rochester-ny/running/distance-running-races/the-puppy-love-run-a-virtual-5k-10k-half-marathon-rochester-2014.  You get sent a bib and then you can run outside or inside as long as it's on February 8th.  I'm all set to sign up for the Mess a Dress race on Jan. 15th. Here's the information: http://www.trailsroc.org/messthedress/. I'm still up in the air about registering for the half marathon. I'm still training and up to 8 miles. I have until around the 15th I believe to register at the lower rate. We'll see what I decide. :)

Below is a clipping from a new group that has been creating dresses and dolls for the Dress A Girl Around the World Rochester site.  I just happen to drop off about 40 dolls that the institution I work for made. I taught some of the Occupational Therapy students and clients how to create the dolls and then later the OT club made a bunch to donate.

Other news is that I was asked to be the Art Therapy Club Advisor for a group of students at the institution I work for. We spent fall semester jumping through all of the hoops to become an official club.  We go before the Senate of the UA at the end of January and I have full confidence that we will get accepted and become an official club on campus at that point. I'm very excited to be a part of this new adventure.

In addition, I applied for an open Board position for the Western New York Art Therapy Association (WNYATA). http://www.wnyata.com/ It is the Delegate position and is for two years. I found out just prior to Christmas that I was accepted and will attend my first meeting as a Board member tomorrow evening. Again, I'm excited to be a part of this initiative but feeling a little anxious as to the amount of work it may add to my already overflowing plate.

Mandala- Tree of Life

In the art therapy group I facilitate for college students this week's directive was to think of stressors in your life that are holding you back from living the life you want/or to be the person you want to. They were told they could use any form of art medium, colors, lines, shapes, images and so on to depict this directive. 

Above was what I worked on while they were creating. I try to work on something relatively simple that is easy for me not to invest in so that I can observe the group members while they are creating. It's also interesting to see which groups ask the facilitators about what they created. I also try to create something that is more of a metaphor to the directive and use it to tie into the theme.  I ended up creating this mandala. I used watercolor paper and watercolor in the background. Then started making a flower with embroidery thread and a needle, then another flower, then some sprouts, then some roots. In the end I poked some holes through the yellow (sun) portion of the mandala so that if you hold it up in the air or adhere it to a window the sun will shine through.  This is the first thing I've created in a while since I've been back to work full time and taking night classes. It felt great to create!