If you have read my previous blog ("news") post about my work with Georgetown Hospital's Arts & Humanities Program (AHP), or if you are one of the hundreds of people who have taken the free on-line classes that I offer through the AHP, you know about the wonderful response that there has been to my weekly hour-long classes, called "Creativity Jumpstart: De-stress with Art" ... and you know what a wonderful community of creative kindred spirits that participants have found in each other.
But what I never have enough opportunities for is sharing the marvelous art made by participants. Each class I propose a technique or a creative prompt, and then each of us interprets it in our own way. We use whatever materials we have handy, we take things in different creative directions, we share our work, we talk about it, and in doing so we have both created a wonderfully encouraging and non-judgmental creative community, but also an impressive body of artwork. I plan, in the coming weeks, to highlight a few of the projects (for which participants have sent me photos) in my blog. I will highlight one week's project (2 classes of students) at a time, so stay tuned to see the kind of work that my students share.
The first class project that I am highlighting was one in which we made mandala-like compositions in a very small :format -- 2-1/2 x 3-1/2 inches, to be exact, which is the size of an Artist Trading Card (ATC). ATCs are miniature works of art that are meant to be traded, not sold. Trading ATCs facilitates the exchange of art, and of ideas. It encourages creativity and communication, and helps mitigate conditions of isolation. My students were invited to swap their ATC art with me or with each other, which was great fun.
Stay tuned for more participant artwork in the coming weeks!
Note: The images of student works that I am sharing here are just some of the work produced in class. There are too many to easily share, so I chose a somewhat random selection that fit into my photo layout,
Also please note that I will not share names here, but if you are the artist and would like me to credit you by name, please let me know.