Here are some images from the show I put up of my student's work, while I was teaching at the Lowell Elementary school, after school program (for 3rd and 4th graders).

The Untitled

I began my career in art through graphic design at college. I moved through the fields of marketing, advertising and commercial photography, and realized that a future in art is what I desired most. It was at the Art Institute of Chicago that my practice took the shape of ceramic art and holography as well as photography. It was the Institute that introduced me to myriad avenues of communication and methods of expression. One course titled “Art Therapy” was particularly enlightening - I met with different art therapists and l their work inspired me immensely. My summer job at Project Onward, a studio for artists with developmental disabilities and mental illness, served as a catalyst. Working with the artists here for a year, the studio became not only my abode of happiness with talented artists, but also a great start to my career.
My artwork changed from being symbolic to abstract, incorporating calm and peace. This is when I found installation art could cater to all five senses simultaneously. Working with abstract forms to create an environment, the laborious process has become as important to me as the end result. I started to make art that created an ambience of Zen or meditation in its deliverance. In the future, I expect my art to continue communicating through abstraction. I would also like to incorporate sculpture into my practice. I would like to use to my art to speak confidently for those that need voice and help them communicate more effectively. I am looking forward to developing my art practice and situating it in relationship to my development as a therapist, while maintaining my interest in contemporary art practice and psychological theories.
I have always been involved in social work – working in the community, and spending time with those that really need it, is very promising and fulfilling for me. My interest in social work intensified when I was involved with CRY (Child Rights and You), working in the Government juvenile penitentiary with girls aging 16 and under. Working with these girls, triggered me to fight against abuse. My recent interests and research is geared towards the Sri Lankan Refugees in Trichy, India and BANYAN (an organization for battered women), Chennai, India. I wish to explore the mental health of this wide population and work with them to establish an environment of understanding. Given the diversity of these two projects, I wish to put my finger on cultural as well as artistic differences in them. I hope to employ folk art and language to build a wholesome relationship with these communities, with their art and their surrounding realities. The outcome would ideally be a photo journal and/or a thorough account of my observations.
I would like to learn new ways of communicating and helping people communicate. From learning this through a curriculum of art therapy under the experienced instruction, I hope to serve battered young women/men in India, in the long run. I am learning with a goal to take back, in a few years, the extent of knowledge, through education and opportunities here, to start and create a new avenue for art therapy in India. Working and studying here in a different cultural context, other than my own, will help me combine what I know, with what I gain from the new surroundings. Besides this, the research and networking in a flourished community of art therapists will help me develop my skills along with intentions and refine them to a logical reality.