{"id":25819,"date":"2020-01-31T19:42:06","date_gmt":"2020-02-01T00:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=25819"},"modified":"2020-02-07T12:29:16","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T17:29:16","slug":"saying-the-unsayable-one-brushstroke-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/saying-the-unsayable-one-brushstroke-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"“Saying the unsayable” one brushstroke at a time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When dealing with a struggle, sometimes its hard \u2013 if not\nimpossible \u2013 to find the right words to express how you feel. It can leave you\nfeeling isolated and even alone, but there are other outlets to convey your\nfeelings, and sometimes that all-important first step is picking up a\npaintbrush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the message being underscored by the Canadian\nMental Health Association of York Region and South Simcoe as they launch their\nnew art exhibition entitled \u201cSay the Unsayable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On now through March 9 at the Aurora Public Library\u2019s\nColleen Abbott Gallery, Say the Unsayable is a collection of art produced and\ncurated by participants in the CMHA\u2019s Art Heals program and aims to not only\ndispel misconceptions surrounding art therapy but challenge the community on\nthe benefits that come from encouraging the creative process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have often found that art manages to say what is on\nother people\u2019s minds when there are no words for [what they are thinking],\u201d\nsays Sharlene Wong, Occupational Therapist with the CMHA. \u201cMany people identify\nwith the image of being able to communicate some of the unsayable things\nfurther through their artwork.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The resulting exhibition brings together pieces created\nby CMHA clients and staff alike. The work, says Ms. Wong, covers a variety of\nmedia. As she prepared to help hang the curated works on the gallery walls this\npast Monday, she said she was struck by very similar threads found in each of\nthe works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat struck me was how people use the artwork to revert\nto memory,\u201d she explains. \u201cThere are some works, for example, that talk about\nthe past long ago and the different memories they have from growing up, and\nthere is this visceral sense of what is going on and what that sense of memory\nwas. There is a lot of feeling; a lot of the works evoke emotions and you can\nget a sense of what was felt in recalling the memory and thinking about the\npeople who are there and what people are experiencing at any given moment in\ntime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Wong says her passion is to \u201cget everyone to see\nthemselves as creators, as artists, able to communicate in a very creative\nway.\u201d This passion, she says, stems from recognizing the benefits creativity\nhas on herself. Art can shift a \u201cterrible\u201d day to one of creativity and\nexploration, sometimes allowing the artist to find a degree of control amidst\nturmoil and chaos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has taken me through some really difficult times and\nI was able to see the benefits [of art therapy] myself, and I can really see\nthe benefits for other people too through things we have been doing at the\nCMHA. It really is awesome to see people have the opportunity to take a\ndifferent role, from being a client or a patient, or user of services, to being\nsomeone who can create, making something they see as beautiful and that others\nsee as beautiful, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art often plays \u201csecond fiddle\u201d to subjects taught to\nchildren, she adds, but it is important to drive home the fact that art is\nintegral to development. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven in my profession as an occupational therapist,\noften times the arts and crafts and things like that tend to be looked down on\nas airy-fairy stuff, things that don\u2019t matter,\u201d says Ms. Wong. \u201cIt ends up\nbeing something really meaningful and something that people can explore that takes\nthem outside of just their weaknesses and disability and can kind of help\npeople see themselves differently, be different, have an opportunity to give\nwhat they have to it. I think it helps people realize that they really do have\nsomething they can contribute to the world, whether it is their perspective,\ntheir views, how they see the world, how they communicate something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really hope from this exhibition everyone gets a sense that creativity is for everyone. Being creative really does lend meaning to life and is a way to connect with other people. It is a way to be in touch with ourselves and I really hope that everyone feels inspired to create.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Art therapy helps Canadian Mental Health Association express what words can’t describe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/2020-01-30-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Ir","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 06:03:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}