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One Roof
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For some time, people have created art as a way to relieve stress and explore their feelings and subconscious. It’s not usually meant for public consumption. But this month an exhibit of works made for art therapy goes on display for all to see. Evanston’s Open Studio Project is designed to provide a glimpse into the artists, but also into ourselves. Eight Forty-Eight contributor Jennifer Brandel has the story.
Patricia Blackwood’s silver-gray pig tails swish from side to side as she rifles through her portfolio, pausing to point out a painting. It’s a watercolor of a thick black rectangular box. In the middle of the box is a patch of sky blue and a bird.
BLACKWOOD: I had a dream and I woke up and I didn’t realize it at first – but I was at the bottom of a grave. And this dream was telling me you are in very serious condition. I didn’t realize it at the time though. But I can look back now and shiver a little.
In another piece, Blackwood’s drawn the words “nobody cares” on the trunks of trees.
BLACKWOOD: I was telling myself the truth – nobody did care. But I’ve learned to care for myself – that’s all that matters really. It’s all you can control.
Patricia Blackwood is an artist – only she didn’t actually know that until a few years ago when she started art therapy.
BLACKWOOD: It’s ridiculous I’m 66 years old and now I realize that I need to honor myself and I need to honor my story and what’s happened to me over the course of my life. I’m a survivor of incest. And it screwed up my life pretty good.
It happened when she was very young, around four or five years old, and her father was the aggressor.
But it wasn’t until after college that her life began to unravel. She became depressed, married the wrong man, had a child and got divorced. Then her mother fell ill.
She quit her job to care for her mother but was an emotional wreck. Eventually she had to turn her mother’s care over to her sister. She didn’t have the stamina to find another job and the money ran out. She felt like she didn’t have anywhere to turn but the streets.
BLACKWOOD: Silly me – not only do I become homeless in Chicago – but I became homeless in September and I was on the street until well into February. Yeah. Not great timing at all!
Blackwood was homeless for five months before she found resources that led her to Mercy Housing. It’s an organization that provides housing and programs for the homeless and poor.
That was a decade ago – and Blackwood has been living and recovering in Mercy housing ever since. Just a few years ago, she decided to try out an art therapy class in the building. Christine Makarewicz is Mercy Housing’s licensed art therapist.
MAKAREWICZ: Creating art is inherently a very healing process – people begin to relax – they begin to open up they begin to explore parts of themselves that are really sort of wonderful discoveries along the way.
Makarewicz says tenants process problems using drawing, painting and collaging. They come up with ways to illustrate an issue and they talk it through with her to gain the perspective that will help them to address it outside the classroom.
She says art therapy also has an important cumulative effect.
MAKAREWICZ: I think that’s the most common, powerful thing I see over and over again – is them beginning to believe more in themselves. And the power of knowing that other people think that they’re worth it – and that others believe in them – gives them a little more faith to take more risks – healthy kind of risks to keep working toward improving themselves and working on their own self growth.
Patricia Blackwood says using art has brought her clarity.
BLACKWOOD: It gave me the idea of using dreams to draw pictures. That’s a very important breakthrough for me.
Many of Mercy’s tenants have become very isolated by their issues, so one of the goals of the therapy program is to create a sense of community. In 2004, a group of women at one residence worked together to create a mural for their dining room.
And now for the first time ever – residents are showing their art to the general public.
Last Friday night in Evanston, tenants and community members gathered at Open Studio Project’s gallery for opening night of their show called “All Under One Roof.”
Drawings, paintings, sculpture and even poetry line the walls of the cozy storefront. Tenants are really eager to talk about their pieces.
GARY: The piece I drew on the canvas is called one way, many choices. You see the grass and the dandelions and the buildings behind you.
That’s Mitch Ann Gary. The landscape she painted in art therapy is a metaphor for taking a wider view on the world.
GARY: There are many choices we can make in life – we just have to venture out – we can’t be afraid.
Christine Makarewicz organized the public exhibit to help show tenants that they really matter and that they can make a positive impact on their community. But tenants minds’ aren’t the only ones she’s hoping to open up:
MAKAREWICZ: I really hope it challenges people’s notions of what is supportive housing? What does it look like? Who does it house? To really challenge notions of poverty. I think people have very negative stereotyped images of crime, violence and ignorance and that is so not the case. You just have to walk through the door and see there’s people with deep, spiritual philosophical viewpoints – an incredibly rich, artistic, creative spirit that’s just dying to be seen – and they really want to be not only connecting with each other in the community – but they want to be contributing to the community as a whole.
Makarewicz hopes this show is the first of many that will help dispel myths of homelessness, poverty, and what it means to be an artist. For Chicago Public Radio, I’m Jennifer Brandel.
All Under One Roof will be on display at Evanston’s Open Studio Project gallery until April 18. All pieces in the show are for sale for and proceeds go to the artists and to supplies for the art therapy classes.
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