Childlike Play

For my birthday, which was back in the summer, Rebekah wanted to sign us up for a local venue's painting event, which featured waterscapes.

But the amount of was out of her budget.

So she went to a craft store and picked up two children's paint kits and brought them home. We did nothing with them because we could not find several hours where both of us were free.

Until this past Sunday.

For most Sunday afternoons over the last two years, I've met with a woman in her mid-90s to listen to her stories and take notes, as I was hired by her family to write her memoir.

But last Sunday, she celebrated Thanksgiving with her friends. Rebekah does not work on Sundays.

So, finally, we painted!

We had no time pressures. No looking at our phones to check the time or messages.

We listened to music (because my art teacher in sixth grade always played classical music during art projects and because my sister and I loved to listen to music while we colored, hours and hours of coloring) and we painted.

We did not talk much, except when asking to borrow a color of the other's paint.

It was several hours of background classical music and brush strokes.

Here's Rebekah's

Here's mine.

Collaborative Art

Earlier this year, WriteOn Joliet hosted a display of collaborative pieces at the downtown branch of the Joliet Public Library.

I wound up collaborating with two different photographers as well as BryonySeries artist Sue Midlock.

Sue is currently working on a novel based on a real-life seventeenth century Scottish witch, so I suggested we create something with a witch them.

So Sue came up with the title "The Witch's Spell." She did the art, asked me to write the text, and then she added the words and embellishing touches.

It had three panels. This is the result.

Unwinding Some Fun

A couple weeks ago, BryonySeries artist Sue Midlock pitched an intriguing idea.

She sent me some pictures of giant wooden spools where artists had wound long paper around it (like a giant scroll), and then wrote on the scroll and decorated it.

Sue was planning to make one of these giant scrolls as a companion piece of art to one of her books and asked if I'd like to make one with a BryonySeries theme. Naturally, I agreed, even though I don't have a clue how this works.

I'm also not very creative. So this should be interesting.

Fortunately, Sue also invited Rebekah to join is. So now I can play artist understudy to Rebekah and Sue simply follow their directions. We are planning to make the scrolls this weekend.

This is the spool Sue's husband, a woodworker, made for her. His making one for me, too, she said.

Next week, I'll update with the completed projects. I'm sure with Sue's guidance and Rebekah's talent, mine will turn out all right.

A Bit About My Other (Non-Writing) Project

In early 2013, I had a loss, one that was devastating to me.

Through the years, I've dealt with many blows: two divorces, two bankruptcies, loss of a home where I thought I'd live out my days, loss of my vehicle, homelessness, ill health, etc. But this loss struck hard.

At the time, Joliet Area Community Hospice had called and asked if I'd be interested in writing a story about its art therapy program for The Herald-News, as the bereavement department was finding it difficult to convince clients that this wasn't about crayons and craft time. And the clients that had used it really didn't want to talk about the programs advantages to them.

Well, I became that client.

The loss occurred when I had no way to pay for the services, but I couldn't function and keep what was left of home and hearth together without it. For anyone that knows JACH, services are free to anyone who cannot afford them, but I am not a person who takes and walks away.

One trait about me is that when I begin a project, I thoroughly delve into it. I've learned through the years not everyone is like this. It's hard to do the hard work when it comes to healing, but, unfortunately, the only way to light is a horrible journey through the dark passages.

So I did. The result, is some phenomenal art, not art in the sense of "artwork," but art that has significant clinical value. This is not my pronouncement, but that of the counselors in the department.

So after spending nearly a year in the program, I began working with the bereavement staff to take some of that art and turn it into a form useful for the JACH bereavement department. As we began the process, The Sun Times sold The Herald-News, Shaw Media purchased it, and I became the newspaper's features editor.

My family was still at a low financial point during this time and work on the project was slow and uneven. But we finally completed it this summer.

The result is three little purse-sized books that take clients on a visual journey from grief to hope. The images within are extremely raw and show a side of me no one has ever met. My name is not on them, as they are meant to be personal without being personalized. They are not available commercially, but only to JACH, although JACH has mentioned it might, perhaps, make them available to other hospice organizations, too. The bereavement department would like every client that walks through JACH's doors to receive copies.

At a time when I literally could not pay for my own help except through my own grief, I'm humbled beyond words.

So I am now actively raising funds to offset the purchase of these books. I will make not profit on them because, again, they are not available for purchase. Yesterday, I received my first substantial donation for hospice, which makes the fruition of this long journey both surreal and satisfying on so many levels.

If you know anyone that would like to contribute to this, please message me at bryonyseries@gmail.com

Or people can send donations directly to Joliet Area Community Hospice and reference "art therapy books." Here's the link: http://www.joliethospice.org/index.html.