November 2002 NEWS

This page is dedicated to inspirational news in the field of art and healing.

CONTENTS:
Passionworks Studio in Athens Ohio
Featured book: Writing to Save Your Life: How to Honor Your Story Through Journaling
By Michele Weldon

Passionworks Studio in Athens Ohio

"Making art is like giving a gift: evidence of your spirit and that you are here."
-Patty Mitchell, Founder and Director of Passionworks Studio

Big Headed Girl,  a painting by a Passionworks Artist

A few years ago, Patty Mitchell was struck by the power of art to transform. She was teaching the cyanotype process to a group of profoundly disabled people. One woman had made a particularly lovely cyanotype of herself surrounded by flowers. Upon viewing this print, the woman's mother had exclaimed with surprise, "I didnít think she could do anything this beautiful." Hidden behind her words was the understanding that her disabled daughter who had been such a burden was now revealed capable of creating beauty and value. The effect on both mother and daughter was profound.

It is these kinds of experiences that fuel Patty in her work at Passionworks Studio in Athens, Ohio, a place where adults with disabilities work with artists and other community members to create unique and wonderful works of art. Since its opening in 1998, Patty, its founder and director, has witnessed a man who had never spoken, begin to use words again after making art. She has marveled at a man no one thought could read and write who in a workshop on tile painting wrote on his tile, "To whom I am writing this there is a strength between our hearts." His gifts as a poet had finally found voice. She has seen firsthand how the creating art has transformed so many adults with disabilities by giving them a means of expression, a sense of purpose and a role within their community.

Vistors attend Passionworks Open Studios

And community is very important to Passionworks. They hold Open Studios every Monday through Wednesday inviting anyone interested from the community to visit. For the past four years, they have won Best Community Float in the Home Coming Parade. For Mental Retardation Awarenss Month, Passionworks used the arts to promote  awareness through an evening program in the Public Library that included watercolor and drawing with brushes held in one's mouth, toes, headgear, or an extension stick.  The community has in turn supported them, giving materials, volunteer hours, and enthusiasm.

Passionworks artists at work

Part of what makes Passionworks so remarkable is that it has a strong goal of self-sustainability. In addition to creating Fine Art, the disabled artists of Passionwork studio create products for sale. Everything from rubber stamps to jewelry and greeting cards can be purchased at the studio or on their web site. Most of their expenses are covered by product sales as well as by occasional grants. This model of sustainability not only creates a more stable program, but also communicates to the participants that they are engaged in something which does not drain resources but rather creates them. And with that comes a sense of greater sense of self-esteem.

Passionworks Float in the Homecoming Parade

And the work itself is so strong, direct, and poignant. As Patty describes, "People with  disabilities are often thought of a single group, each person being identical to another, identified by  their disability. But inside these broken bodies are solid spirits, willing and wanting to give. Art has been the prefect conduit. It is as if a tap has been  turned on and I am running not to lose a drop. The work is genuine, deliberate, intimate, and  spontaneous. Whenever an artist finishes a piece I want to hold it up so everyone can see what is going  on here. I am overwhelmed by the beauty." Others cannot deny the strength of this work either. Just four months ago, one of the Passionworks artists won best of show in a juried exhibition that included 400 entries and in which second place was awarded to a tenured professor at the University of Ohio. 

In speaking with Patty about the future of Passionworks, she said she has three dreams. First is a studio in the community with an emphasis on the disabled, but that is open to everyone. It would include a storefront and enough funds to employ artists full time to work there. Second is to create a strong model that they can then share with other people looking to create similar community-based art programs. Third, a trip to Disneyland. "Everyone works so hard here, I'd love to give them all a vacation," says Patty.

David Barbara and Patty Mitchell surrounded by Passionworks flowers

Patty offers this advice to other artists wishing to use their talents to serve their community: "You don't need to reinvent yourself to do this. Just share what you know and who you are. It's OK to be involved physically with the work too. It's OK for your hand to be in there. Be the technician, the cheerleader, and nurture what is working."

Patty gains continued inspiration from the Passionworks artists: "I am very lucky. I have been given the opportunity  to uncover the artistic talents of people with  developmental disabilities...They are fearless in their creative process...They are beautiful thinkers."

To learn more about Passionworks Studio, visit their web site at www.passionworks.org

FEATURED BOOK:

Writing to Save Your Life:
How to Honor Your Story Through Journaling
By Michele Weldon

"This experiment in writing may help you to heal one cell at a time. I know because writing my story helped me to heal." -Michele Weldon

Don't be fooled by this book's cover. The meditative melancholy of the cover image is misleading. Between these pages is a voice that is witty, lively, honest, open and generous, but never melancholy. Michele Weldon draws on her own personal experience to such an extent that the book becomes part autobiography in addition to being a road map for anyone wishing to use writing to heal. Each chapter begins with a thoughtful examination of a topic such as "Focus on the Big Idea" or "Honor Your Story," and then moves to practical exercises, and concludes with an essay by Michele that supports the insights of the chapter. Her stories of raising three sons as a single mother are poignant and vibrant and offer great examples of how Michele herself has used the process of writing to heal and grow. I highly recommend this book for anyone wishing to express themselves in words. Published in 2001 by Hazeldon, this 245 page, softcover book can be purchased through Amazon by clicking here.

Author Michele Weldon

The following excerpt from Michele Weldon's essay "Cry me a River" reveals both the humor and insight of the personal essays in Writing to Save Your Life.

CRY ME A RIVER

"I never thought of Bruce Willis as a crybaby. But there he was in my bedroom turning on the faucets, bawling, sobbing, weeping, sniffling, and  making himself a generally teary mess. I had rented him and Michelle Pfeiffer for the night and in one particular against-type-casting scene from The Story of Us, Mr Moonlighting Macho was acting like an Italian mother at her oldest son's wedding. 

Lately, I've seen a whole lot of crying going on."

The esssay concludes with...

"I think it's a good sign that at this point in history we are all in touch with our inner hysteric, We are no longer humiliated by a shriek and an eruption of emotion. You can be sitting contentedly in a Borders sipping a latte and skimming through recipes for carbohydrate addicts or emotional prescriptions from Dr. Phil McGraw when somewhere in the aisles between psychology and travel, you detect the beginning of a crying jag. A few people will look up from their short-story collections, but most will pretend not to notice and will continue their search for this month's book club selection, convinced it is as impolite to call attention to a loss of emotional control as it is to tell a stranger his zipper is down. 

The openness to our own individual wailing has an odd twist. The paradox is that the more sensitive we are to our feelings, the more desensitized we get to others' feelings. So here we go, rightfully feeling we have permission to cry like babies in the drive-through or the show repair shop. But we turn the other tear-stained cheek when we catch a glimpse of our neighbor doing the same. 

I don't know why this happens, but for someone who has cried behind the wheel of the expressway hundreds of times whether it's because my favorite song has just started - or ended - or I know I have to make dinner when I get home, everybody else in the universe looks the other way. It is as if by crying out loud you have bared the spinach in your teeth or paraded in public with toilet paper trailing from your shoe. You can cry like a river, but the universe will whistle and hum as they cross the bridge over your troubled water.

Bruce is not alone. A whole bunch of us are crybabies. Especially me. But if and when I see someone else fall over the emotional cliff and let loose with a river of tears, I usually offer tissues. A good cry will clear your outlook the way a few spritzes of Windex and a splash from the garden hose do to your outside windows. You can see more clearly when it's over. Crying is just cleaning your windows.

So go ahead and have a good one. You can use my sleeve. And please, if the moment moves me to tears, let me use yours."

Michel Weldon, Writing to Save Your Life, pages 96-98. 

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