Stained Glass

We have been having some great workshops with Tempura paint. This was also the case for Wednesday, March 26th. At Caraes, we had twelve participants join in for some art therapy! The first project was making a "kaleidoscope" of colors, which ended up being a very relaxing way to create with patterns and colors. Click "Read More" to see how everybody created their own unique works, and the amazing Bicycle and Lion art that followed! We are so proud of the skills these artists are showing!

More Puzzle Pieces

Monday, March 24th was a day to try out a collaborative project! To get everybody ready, we first started with some warm-up sketches of blobby things, which turned out to be bacteria. We colored them with bright paint. Our second warm-up drawings consisted of faces, stylized and cartoony. Much to the... "delight" of our artists, there was encouragement to show that the people had either 1. A runny nose, 2. were caught in mid-cough, or 3. were sneezing. The perfect companion piece to some germs.

The culmination of the session was to draw and paint onto some more puzzle pieces, to produce a puzzle with a bright, unified style!

It was a process of many steps and practice to make the final group piece. The final result - a fun, interactive art piece that may contain a message about covering one's mouth when they sneeze?

Thanks again to Claver Haragirimana, Beth Gatonye, Vicent Nsengiyumva and Pastor Theogen for their assistance!

Puzzle Pieces

We had a great art session on Friday, March 21st. The night before, we cut out and prepared a number of thick puzzle pieces. With the participants at Caraes, we started off with some warm-up paintings, and then proceeded to the main event - making a group-created puzzle art piece! Click "Read More" to see the final, complete puzzle!

Box Art 2

Session 2 on Monday, March 17th was just as fun as the first one! Again, we approached the challenge of creating a piece of art that wraps around the sides of a box when it is assembled. Before that, we did a warm up using foam stamps and markers and had so much fun! Click "Read More" to see the whole set of creations.

Box Art 1

Monday, March 17th was a double day for art therapy sessions at Caraes.

Materials were markers and stamps. If you don't have an ink pad, it is easy to draw on foam or rubber stamps using markers - the ink comes off on the paper just like a stamp should.

For session one we did a fun warm-up using the stamps and some free-drawing with the markers.

After the warm-up, it was on to the main event - decorating a paper box on all sides. The challenge was designing a pattern that wraps around the entire box.

Landscape Painting

Friday was our second day of art at CARAES and though it was a short day, everybody who painted created works I would hang on my walls!

As we are still in the stages of calibrating our art therapy, the first day's lesson was our first usage of tempura paint. Eight participants were instructed on the usage of color to create a sense of depth in an image. "Warm" colors such as red, yellow and orange tend to "pop" from an image while "cool" colors such as green, blue and purple recede into the background. With this in mind, we created landscapes with blue mountains, green fields in the middle and bright reds and oranges up front.

Read more to see the entire set of paintings!

Paint on Friday

We are about to host our next set of art therapy sessions at CARAES. Friday is a day for painting!

The morning session will be exploring the use of color to create mood, discovering what certain colors can mean. Participants will learn the simple lesson that "cool" colors recede and "warm" colors come forth.

The afternoon session will be painting to decorate a paper fold-up box, placing a symbol on it to indicate what it could be used to hold.

In practical terms, learning about the use of color in art allows the artist to make a work that can communicate well - which is necessary for producing good graphic designs. Approaching the task of decorating a box with art will also bring the artist closer to the skill of design - for example, how to make sure that the edges of the unfolded box match well when they meet to form the cubic shape.

Pictures will be forthcoming!

Session 2

On Monday, March 10th, we were fortunate to have a second session with some of the previous participants. To continue on the same track and explore more drawing, we continued with markers and paper.

I brought some inspirational art as print-outs (thanks Holly) and set them around the table. We then began a free-form "draw what you want" half-hour session, where each participant chose how to draw or interpret the art in front of them. Images from Charles Burchfield, Keith Haring and Paul Klee were provided.

The results definitely speak for themselves:

The last 45 minutes was used to teach the proportions of the face - everybody divided regions and used rules of alignment to create a basic face drawing. This was a very technical lesson and the eagerness for the participants to go through the process was very strong.

Afterwards, we talked some more and during this, a few of the participants ask to have sessions where they could be shown how to make art that had value. The first request was that I bring beans, paint, glue and a thick board so that colorful words could be made in a bean collage! The second request was a sign of the technical entrepreneurship that is all over Rwanda - to teach how to make art for posters - wow!

The third request was that art made during the sessions be used to create T-shirts that could be sold - something that can be sold in art stores in the States in order to raise funding to keep art therapy sustained at CARAES.

Long-term sustainability is a challenge that all small businesses and endeavors face in Rwanda. Thankfully, Rwandans are people who are ready to accept this challenge and are looking for people who will give them a supporting boost.

Next sessions are set for Friday! Stay tuned for more art!

Art Therapy - First Sessions

Hey everybody! Monday, March 10th was the first day for art therapy sessions at CARAES at Ndera. Twelve participants were there to assemble, play with and use the Expressive Figures paper toy to create art, all within an hour! Everybody quickly learned how to assemble the pose-able paper doll and I barely needed to advise them how to decorate once they knew to trace the figure.

And each figure was truly expressive! Family members, personal heroes, people at specific events; the mix of characters created was something that naturally arose.  During the first session, we all talked about language, Ikinyarwanda, French and English - the three languages used in Rwanda. Take a look at the results from session 1:

Finding Partners

Rwanda is an entrepreneurial country, working hard to produce a strong economy, but it is also filled with people who are looking for a way to support and grow the community of people who do not have the resources to jump to that entrepreneurial level.

Yesterday, Claver Haragirimana (OPROMAMER president/director) and myself were fortunate to meet with people interested in mental health care in Rwanda and in participating in the Soul Therapy program at CARAES, Ndera. Not surprisingly, these were people who were already invested in providing care to people who are under-served.

We talked about the problems that those with mental illness face. One young woman is already helping those with epilepsy, transporting them to appropriate care facilities and even paying for treatment! This is in response to the stigma surrounding people who suffer from epilepsy - without proper medication and care, epileptics often lose the privilege attending schooling and holding jobs.

The unfortunate fact is that Rwandans who suffer from mental health problems are often marked for exclusion from many areas of society. Families will often shun members who exhibit mental illness and will even shun them after a recovery - the stigma and fear surrounding mental health is strong.

Fortunately, there is a solution! When those with mental health issues are cared for, treated fairly and given access to proper means, they can become respected professionals. Such a reversal of fortune often eliminates the detrimental effects of stigma. This is why it is one of Soul Therapy's goals to not only bring art to patients as a therapy, we also are seeking to teach useful skills to patients so they may produce income and engender respect within their communities.

In addition to discussing activities, we also talked about sources of support and funding. Soul Therapy and OPROMAMER are important resources for the mentally ill and they need more resources in order to grow and meet the needs of those afflicted with mental illness. There are many institutions, both national and international, along with associations and co-operatives here in Rwanda that may be able to help.

Thank you everybody who came out to the meetup! Monday is the first day for holding the new round of art therapy sessions at CARAES in Ndera. There will be two sessions with a handful of participants, one from 10:30 to 11:30 and another from 2:30 to 3:30. The project will be "Expressive Figures" and it will be very fun! More sessions are planned, possibly with new people running them!

Shokola Meetup

Just a day ago, we posted to Kigali Life, looking for people who are passionate about art therapy. So many replies came in, we decided to host an informal meetup at Shokola in Kimihurura across the street from Ogopogo (not Shokola LITE in Kamukina). If you are using Google maps to find the location, look up "Laterite Ltd" - Shokola is nearby on that road, KG 668 St.

The day is this Saturday, March 8th, from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.

Come by to hear about our plans and ideas and to have a discussion about growing art therapy here in Kigali. We are looking to form a core group of interested and involved partners!

CARAES Coordination

CARAES at Ndera is the only referral hospital for mental health care in Rwanda. Some health care occurs in any number of the thirty districts outside of Kigali, but CARAES is where long-term, admitted care takes place. The hospital sits on top of one of Kigali's many verdant hills - driving there is quite lovely.

Today was the day my new colleagues and I visited CARAES Hospital in Ndera and asked them what they need. Jean Pierre ("Kevin"), CLAVER and myself first were greeted by the director of CARAES, Frère Charles NKUBILI. We explained our goal - to bring sustainable and continuous art and "ergo" therapy to patients of Ndera.

After we showed him our ideas and expressed our passion, Director Nkubili led our group to the occupational therapy workshop, where we met Innocent SIBOMANA, psychiatric nurse. We learned about the "ergotherapie" that is practiced at Ndera - it is quite diverse - sports, dancing, crafts, art, and gardening. The problem is that resources are limited and these therapies cannot occur as much as they are needed - more activity coordinators are needed!

We also talked about CARAES' system for determining patient improvement. I was very interested in how we could provide art therapies that directly bolster healthy, strong, personal growth. I will be asking for advice from many people.

With APROMAMER our first task is to introduce, trial, and refine new art therapies for patients requiring mental health care. After that is shown to be effective, the next step is to find people who are passionate about continuing these programs - to bring art therapy closer to full long-term sustainability here in Rwanda.

There is drive to create even more beyond these goals, but first things first. On Monday, I return to CARAES to teach two sessions with the first groups of patients... those who are looking for something simple, expressive and fun to make - "Expressive Figures" is the first project. I am eager to share the artist's work here soon!

Meeting with Partners

Today was a good day for progress in setting up Soul Therapy!

Caraes is the name of the mental health hospital where I will be trialing art therapy sessions. I met with a partner of Caraes, Haragirimana Claver, who is a mental health advocate. Together with Jean Pierre Ndagijimana they are part of an organization called OPROMAMER, which is designed for patient advocacy and is there to help connect former patients with aftercare. In a country where mental illnesses can bring stigma, OPROMAMER is seeking to bring attention, advocacy and solutions to the problems associated with mental health care.

I showed Claver the session plans that are designed and ready to go and he was pleased with the different art projects and he thought that patient participants would find them appealing. This week, we will meet with the director at Caraes to discuss dates and times and the needs of the the patients at Caraes.

The most important goal with Soul Therapy is to create a self-sustaining art therapy program that is based in Kigali. Claver stresses how vital it is that art therapy becomes one of many solutions driven by the needs of mental health patients in Rwanda. More about this in a future post!

Check out these resources to see what Rwanda has to offer for continuous mental health care. The well-being of patients is a critical, nationally recognized goal in Rwanda.

Caraes Hospital

Talk Recovery Training

OPROMAMER

Expressive Figures

Expressive Figure Samples

The first session of art is all planned and it is called "Expressive Figures". Each artist will create a frieze of dynamic figures and simple lines depicting movement, energy, or mood. I've seen the results of this workshop run by a friend, Holly Phelan-Johnson of Happy Mess Art and it will be exciting to see the results here in Rwanda as well.

This project will be run with materials and lesson plans donated by Happy Mess Art in North Carolina.

The Tracing figure - a poseable Poplock tool