- My main art practice is watercolor.

I really enjoy the release of like water and pigment hitting a page.

(spray bottle sprays) I do a lot of wet-on-wet watercolor work, which is the practice of wetting your page down first and then dropping colors.

So you can't really control the movement of the water.

I think most of my main focus is, how does this painting make me feel after?

Not, is this an exact replica of your reference?

- [Interviewer] So you tie it back to emotion?

- Yeah, always.

(soft piano music) Art is just a process for whatever you need it to be.

I feel like it can be like a tool or a vehicle even for communication.

Sometimes it's just easier to talk when you're doing things with your hands.

People will even see it's easier to listen when they're regulating their mind in different ways.

I feel like I've had so many experiences where people look lighter after making art.

And this isn't something they're gonna put up in a museum.

It was a 45-minute activity that we did together.

Typical day in the studio, beads everywhere.

There are therapeutic tenets in repetitive motion and how that actually calms your body, releasing positive endorphins, reducing cortisol levels.

So it's literally stress reduction.

But it could even just be like tearing paper and gluing it down, making a collage based on like the pieces around you.

I think it's sometimes just hard to say how we feel, but that doesn't mean that we can't release that emotion.

And art does a beautiful job at that.

(stapler clacks) (soft ethereal music) (soft ethereal music continues) (soft ethereal music continues) (soft ethereal music continues) I grew up in a family full of artists.

I took a lot of art classes.

I took AP Drawing, AP Design.

From those courses, I learned that art is so many things.

And then once I got to college, it was like, "Okay, I think I actually wanna pursue a career in art."

When I was sitting in an informational session at Alverno, they mentioned art therapy, which I had never heard of before.

And that really felt right.

(bright music) Brush Box started in my final year of grad school.

That was also the beginning of the pandemic.

And people were seeking forms of connection, and I was like, "Oh, what could we do?"

And I thought how I always do this build your own superhero program with different communities that they really enjoy.

And I was like, "Oh, we can make like a superhero box "with different clothing and people can decorate it."

And those are all about knowing your super strengths, knowing it's okay to have a weakness.

(bright music) From there, we worked with the SEC, we worked with the ACLU, we worked with Children's, we worked with Make-A-Wish.

And now we're working with St. Joan Antida, and they are running an Empower Hour, which is about bringing community partners into their school space and learning a skill.

So we are in there running a expressive art therapies group, and that is really just focused on giving the girls one time in their week to regulate, decompress, and build community with each other.

So each week we bring in a different art material, we teach 'em how to use it, and then give them the rest of the class time to create and then share.

We do check-ins at the start and at the end of each group just to see where they are in the space to not only let me know but let each other know like, "This is how this person is feeling today.

"So just be aware of that."

But I would say consistently, by the end of group, they're more elevated in their mood.

They feel like they have the space to express themselves.

And it's just, I think, also a good way to end the day.

Like, let's go home on a positive note and let's finish our week off strong.

- My superhero is beautiful.

(Amber laughs) - I like how you use the bottle cap as a shield.

I love that.

I would say my mind does not have a lack of ideas.

So a lot of the times, it's like I tell people like Brush Box almost feels like a fever dream.

Like, it's just kind of like, "Okay, we're doing this, we're rocking with it."

But a lot of times too, the community will be like, "Oh, you should make this," or, "It'd be cool if you did this."

So we're like, "Okay, let's try that out."

This is our Whimsical Garden Kit.

And the purpose behind this goes back to the tenets of like creating a safe space.

So a safe space is just a place that you feel comfortable, grounded, regulated.

And this is kind of a fun, metaphorical way to create it.

The Manifestation Kit is all about making your dreams come true.

It's very important to carry affirmative thought with you through the day.

That's just instilling positivity in yourself.

So these are a way to carry your positive thoughts with you.

I think I just want people to feel joy, to feel like they deserve to make art.

People just lack that idea of like, they could even be an artist, and it's just showing like, yes, you deserve to create just like everybody else.

You can do it.

We want people to make art.

And if we can make that easier, then we'll do that.

- [Announcer] Thanks for watching "The Arts Page."

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