Creative Release for Mental Wellness

Unwind with dots Dorota Chioma and Jennifer Mazur guide you towards relaxing while being creative. Careful, repetitive drawing/painting is one of the ways to slow down, relax and rewind and if you can create a nice image at the same time, it's the cherry on top :) Join us and get creative while using dots. No artistic skills required. What you need: Activity 1: Dot Tree - A4 white card/paper - red/yellow/orange/black acrylic paint - a small sponge (dry) - a paintbrush - a bottle cork or any other circular object to dip in the paint Activity 2: - A4 white card/paper - acrylic paint in 2 or 3 colours (not white) - a few q-tips and toothpicks (one for each colour)

This workshop facilitated by Creative Release for Mental Wellness in collaboration with Breaking The Chalk and Legal Wolf, focuses on simple mark making using paint and ordinary objects found around the house to produce a wrapping paper to wrap a present for a beloved one. Using mark making with random objects and fingers thinking about love, kindness, and how it makes us feel to give and receive it. Suitable for toddlers with adult supervision. “Repetition is present in the production of art, it enhances the growth of motor skills which are necessary for art production, and it leads to the development of graphic primitives, geometry and schema, which enable the artist to generate representations and signs.” (Tipple, 2003: 52)

This workshop facilitated by Creative Release for Mental Wellness in collaboration with Breaking The Chalk and Legal Wolf, focuses on producing characters expressing emotion providing a great dose of free play, unpredictability, and collaboration. A good opportunity to identify emotions and create what it evokes by different types of characters as well as colour choices. Suitable for adults and children with developed fine motor skills enabling drawing. A minimum of two participant required.

This workshop facilitated by Creative Release for Mental Wellness in collaboration with Breaking The Chalk and Legal Wolf, focused on calming patterns and demonstrates a ‘mirroring’ exercise which is the art therapy technique helping to calm and relax while the end product is often very aesthetically pleasing. Suitable for children and adults with developed fine motor skills enabling holding a felt pen and controlling the movement in order to mirror a pattern.

"There is no shadow without light and no light without shadow...." You do not need to create a masterpiece to access the healing properties of making art. You do not need any artistic skills to make art and benefit from it. Our third episode of Creative Release for Mental Wellness focuses on some techniques used by Jennifer Mazur and Dorota Chioma which do not require much effort/skills while offering a symbolic purpose in boosting mental wellness. Join us as we talk about finding positivity to shine through the darkness cast by a shadow. Some creative exercises are introduced by both artists. Should you wish to create alongside, please have the following handy: Activity one: print out one page from the attached options a black pen/sharpie/posca pen/felt tip marker (1 additional colour is optional) Activity two: A4 piece of paper/card/or watercolour paper, wax crayons (black, and two shades of chosen colour, for example brown and beige, dark and light green), a water-based ink in the chosen colour as per crayons or water paint in this colour, a lamp/source of light and a plant or object - the source of light to be directed over the plant/object to cast a shadow

Celebrating Mental Health Awareness week 2021 with Time to Change Kingston. The video presents the art workshop event facilitated by @dorota.chioma.art - TTC Kingston Champion - during which we explored the analogy of mental health being like a tree and engaged in a creative process of making our own representation of it. We used recycled materials and reflected on our own strengths making us resilient to withstand adverse 'weather' conditions affecting mental health. Watch and join in on this mindful and creative journey. No artistic skills required only a willingness to get a bit messy:)

Creative Release for Mental Wellness formed by two artists: Dorota Chioma and Jennifer Mazur, who use art to elevate mental health challenges, present the extract from the special event: Does Art Heal? They engage in conversation based on some quotes from reading resources they came across while researching the topic but also share personal experiences about their healing through art journey.

The recording of a live event which took place on 19th March 2021. Dorota Chioma & Jennifer Mazur talk about how creativity helps them to ease mental health distress and share some easy techniques they use to support their mental wellbeing.