Experiences in Art and Art Therapy

Devotions.

2010-04-05T17:15:00.001-07:00

On Friday, I photographed artist friend Patrick Cruickshank's art show. His show was entitled "Devotions", and was a compilation of drawings that he had done every day for one year.

Patrick's work is beautiful, and was very well displayed. It was a privilege to be able to photograph the event.

(Friend Heather was serving wine all night. She was so cute I couldn't help but take photos of her!)

Fowl Play art show, and an inspiring trip to the island!

2010-02-08T11:53:00.000-08:00

My good friend, Meghan Mast, has an aunt who is a fantastic artist. Her name is Yvonne Vanderkooi, and she lives in Nanaimo (which is on Vancouver Island.) Here is a link to some of her work.
http://www.nanaimoartwalk.ca/2009/artists/VanderKooi.html

She is also involved in a non-profit organization called SWAN-- Start With Art Nanaimo. Their aim "is to present opportunities for artistic expression that can inspire and encourage new and emerging artists to bring their art to life in our local region."
So, SWAN came up with the idea of hosting an art exhibit in their studio for anyone who would create a work of art with a bird in it.

Meghan, Sheri and I decided to take up this challenge and all created works containing birds. And then, this past weekend we took the ferry to the island and stayed with Meghan's aunt in her beautiful home. Our work was hung on Friday, and we attended the art opening on Saturday.

Here is my painting, entitled "Let Caged Birds Fly Free."

I returned home feeling very inspired.
I even painted this next piece last night!

Photography in Florida

2010-01-05T17:00:00.000-08:00

For Christmas this year, my family decided to visit my brother in Florida. He is there interning on a farm which develops different agricultural techniques to take into developing nations. There were so many beautiful plants! And so much delicious fresh fruit.
Cranberry hibiscus. The leaves taste a bit like cranberries and are supposed to be good in salads.
There were so many varieties of citrus in season! David picked some for us.
Along with taking care of the rain forest subdivision of the farm, David is also rearing ducks. This is one of them.

Sheri pulled me around in a wagon on the farm for awhile.
We also took some time to discover the area surrounding the farm-- mostly Fort Myers and Myakka State Park. We toured Thomas Edison's winter estate, which boasted many interesting species of plants that Edison was experimenting with. Above is a rubber tree.

And here is a vanilla orchid climbing up the trunk of another tree.

I'm not sure exactly what type of flower this was, but found it interesting that the tree was so sparse except for the few flowers on it.
Also, this is Mrs. Edison's bed. She has great taste in clothes!

All in all, it was a great vacation. So good to spend some time with my family, and explore some sights with my camera.

teaching photography.

2009-11-02T20:53:00.000-08:00

The last six weeks I have been teaching digital photography once per week at Camp Peace, through Urban Promise. This is an after school program for children from underprivileged families. There were 12 kids in the group, all of them so excited about taking pictures and learning how to use the camera!

It was really inspiring to see the kids with their cameras, and how quickly they learned and improved their photography skills. And they came up with some beautiful, creative photos! Here are some of the photos that the kids took taken during this class.

Quilting for a cause.

2009-10-18T22:09:00.000-07:00

This spring I applied for a job to lead a quilting group in the Downtown Eastside. I did not get the job, but the director of the program encouraged me to join the quilting group. So, I began dropping by and quilting with them. Their goal in this project is to create community through quilting. The group is situated at the intersection of Carrall and East Hastings--where the peak of the homeless population of Vancouver resides. The quilting group is an effort to create a creative community for them, and for those interested in making a positive impact in this area.

I was encouraged to make a quilt to hang in their art show. And so, I decided to take this project into the Day Program, and make a quilt with my clients there. One day at the quilting group, I met a woman who happened to be the foster mother of one of my clients at the Day Program! (There were all sorts of neat connections like this that happened at the quilting group.) She brought in some samples of her work using a technique called "flower pounding".

In this technique, you pretreat fabric. Then you pick flowers, tape them to the fabric, and pound away with a hammer! The dyes from the flower bleed through the fabric and are preserved. For the month of September, we picked flowers from the Day Program's garden and around the neighborhood. The clients arranged them, and we all hammered away. We then discovered that the fabric went through the typewriter very well! My coworker, Meghan, and I asked the clients what they thought of flowers and gardening. We then typed their quotes onto the squares.

After finishing the squares, I needed to figure out how to piece them together into a quilt. Fortunately, my mother happened to be visiting. She helped me put everything together in the end. Thanks, mom!

The quilt is now hanging in the gallery. It looks stunning against the brick wall, surrounded by so many other beautiful, thoughtful quilts. On Saturday it will be auctioned off, and proceeds will go to the Downtown Eastside Centre for the Arts.

For more info:
http://www.decentreforthearts.com/home/programs/fabric-arts/community-quilt-project-stories

painting about food and fair trade.

2009-10-12T22:55:00.000-07:00

Five years ago, I was in college studying art, and just adopting a vegetarian diet. With my change in diet came the realization that my kitchen cupboard contents come from so far away! I had not given much thought to the origins of what I was eating, even though I grew up on a farm. I painted "Intake Outtake" in response to some of my thoughts.

My friend, Carolyn, fell in love with it and persuaded me to sell it to her. I had been meaning to do more paintings in this series, but never had the chance to pick up the project again.

But then, my friend Justine began working for the Micah Centre, a group promoting social justice and international development opportunities for students at King's University College. She asked if the painting could be used in the Micah Centre's brochures.

And then, she asked that I do a similar painting for the Micah Centre! So, here is "A Fair Trade?" It has now been sold, and will be hanging in King's University College in Edmonton sometime soon.

Art Therapy at Camp Kerry

2009-10-05T12:22:00.000-07:00

I lead Art Therapy at Camp Kerry for the third time this year. Camp Kerry is a camp for families who are grieving--most of them have lost a parent/ spouse within the last few years.
http://www.campkerry.org/

Throughout the weekend we did so many art activities-- making nametags, banners, posters, jewelry, beaded animals, lanterns, butterfly wishes, kites... ! It was very busy, so I did not have much time to take photos. When I went to take my first photo I discovered that my batteries were dead in my camera! So, here are a few photos from our lantern ceremonies in the previous years. This year's lantern ceremony was similar, though in a different setting. The families all made and/or decorated their lanterns in commemoration of the person in their family who has passed away.

I left camp feeling so inspired by the families and their ability to love and give and be so strong and open through so much sadness. I was also blown away by the kids and their ability to create. They are art maniacs! They were in the art room every spare moment, creating away.

home-made tank tops.

2009-08-11T16:35:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Sheri and I went to her parents' place out in the country. This proved to be the perfect place to get our creative juices flowing! For months I had been wanting to make tank tops out of this beautiful white cotton material that I have. I was delighted to find that Sheri's mom had a serger for us to use!

We spent one morning making the perfect pattern, then sewing four tank tops. We then cut out our carefully calculated designs, placed them on top of the tops, and spray painted them!

Voila! Beautiful, one of a kind tank tops!

Heidi and Graham's wedding.

2009-06-14T21:42:00.000-07:00

I had the privilege of photographing Heidi and Graham's wedding on June 6. They are such a beautiful couple, and put so much thought and work into their wedding. It was so much fun to be able to capture the details of their wedding with my camera! It was also great to spend some time with them again in my hometown of Lacombe.

Andy Warhol-esque self portraits.

2009-05-18T17:33:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, I lead some of my clients at the day program through this art activity. I photographed them, then traced their images with permanent marker so that I just had the outlines of all of their features. Then I photocopied it, and voila! Self-portrait coloring sheets! My clients each colored 4+ copies in all different colors, then we placed them on poster sheets in the arrangement of Andy Warhol's "Marilyn". We then sealed everything with mod podge. The results were fantastic! My clients loved it, and it was so neat to see how differently all of them color!

So, I decided to try this activity with the kids with autism that I work with. Again, great results!

Fish-eye lens photography.

2009-05-06T22:37:00.000-07:00

This past month, I lead a photography program at the Day Program. My clients love photography! And they are so interested in how it works. One day, I brought in my little, yellow, point-and-click, fish-eye lens camera. I took my clients for a walk and let them take the photos with this camera. I am not sure if they were being vain or wanting to see the photo being taken, but they kept on turning the camera on themselves! Here are some of the results.

good news:

2009-05-02T22:56:00.000-07:00

The paintings all sold at the gala!
In total they raised about $500, which will go towards autism research and funding the school.

I received much positive feedback on them, and there might be potential for me to do another similar series later on... we'll see!

Creature art!

2009-04-11T20:07:00.000-07:00

I lead Art Therapy sessions at a school for children with autism. They are having a fund raising gala soon, and so last month I was approached by a committee from the school, requesting that I help them create some art for the gala. Together, we decided that I would turn one of the student's drawings into paintings. And so I was handed a very large stash of all these amazing drawings of all kinds of animals and people in all different situations, each drawn by one of the students.

I picked out seven small portions of her drawings and tried my best to render them with paint on canvas. Although I love outcome, they do not compare to her original drawings! Her drawings are so playful and uninhibited and unimaginably creative!

And some dinosaurs!