WHERE: Gallery On High, Pottstown, PA
Upcoming artist show in Pottstown, PA, at The Gallery On High, called "A Journey Through Anxiety".
As a fine artist in 2010, I had my artwork in art shows, on TV, on the front page of the newspaper and even on the radio! And these are all great, but I have a feeling that this upcoming combination of education and fine art show will top all I did in 2010, because it could actually help people.And the way it will work is: I will go to The Gallery On High's school component about a month before the show and I will give a talk... hold an education session for an hour or so. In a sense, this is where I sit down with folks, of various age groups, that have been diagnosed with mental disorders/mental challenges — been given the 'labels' (i.e. Schizophrenia, anxiety, OCD, depression — a lot of these people are even on medications), and I will introduce traditional art examples to them, even show a few of the popular artists of the last century, and then go on to promote that this is not the ONLY definition of what art is or can be. My goal of this talk is to demonstrate arts usefulness as a tool: to help alleviate anxiety, to express abstract thoughts, to access its therapeutic benefits. Especially with respect to anxiety; in addition to tools like communication (talking about mental issues with someone), medication, deep breathing, etc., art can be an additional - powerful - tool to help and/or simply exercise the mind (AKA mental health).
I will then talk about my process as an artist and show a piece or two of my fine art. The group will then start to think about how they can use these techniques to create works that can alleviate or desensitize their anxieties, mental discomforts and disorders. They will then make their art on (estimated) 20'' x 20" canvases.
I will return to the school for another 1 hour group session to see what they created and to talk about the successes of such.
So here's my synopsis of how the session will likely go:
- What is Art - dispel the traditional thoughts and show diversity - visual presentation - projection... some images - Van Gogh, Close, Pollock (5 min)
- My work, [it] as art, concepts - my process, how art can help the mind, any mind (example: to desensitize oneself to ones fears). (10 min)
- My process - abstract thought/concept, sketch it out/development, ideas for implementation, create, final piece. (15 min)
- Q & A - ask "clients" what 'thoughts' they would like to 'see'? Abstract - to - tangible. Out in the open... exposed... easier to deal with, talk about. How can best convey these with art? What mediums? What technique/style? (30 min)
- Students start their pieces.
- Critique, discussion and wrap up. (1 hour)