Community Care South Hastings is preparing for an art exhibit that not only showcases beautiful pieces, but provides healing.
On Friday December 8 from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. at Bayview Mall in Belleville, the Healing Strokes Arts Exhibit will showcase work by people who have suffered a stroke or their family members.
Lorraine Pyle is with Community Care South Hastings and works as Stroke Support Services Coordinator.
She says every person who submitted to the exhibit went through multiple eight-week sessions of art therapy.
“Every participant is a stroke survivor, or a stroke caregiver. They come in and work with a therapy student (Jodi Cooper). They paint, they create, they do different activities and at the same time the conversation is focused on their healing.”
Pyle says the participants got to not just paint, but also share their struggles, while processing what they have been through.
Jodi Cooper oversees the art therapy classes and they are about sharing inspirational stories, while describing the journey of being a stroke survivor.
“They came together and wanted to create this art show, as an awareness campaign and to have some advocacy and to share their voice.”
Cooper says she has been working with the survivors and their families for over a year. Cooper is also a student herself, at Vancouver Art Therapy Institute.
” … just to hear their resilience and their stories of how they’ve come to be where they are today.”
Monique Djoenaedi and her husband, who had a stroke four years ago, participated in the art classes.
“It was fantastic. My husband really enjoyed it, so did I. We were left on our own to follow our own instincts and what we felt to do.”
