The Mental Health Awareness and Creative Arts Gallery at 717 Columbia Street Hudson, NY will be hosting a reception and display of art/recovery books created by students of the “Create a Book” class. The class began in early June and attracted several artists in recovery from serious mental health issues. The lead teachers are Jesse Sanchez and Brian Karas. Jesse’s background is in graphic art and book cover design and Brian’s experience is with various book binding techniques —Their combined knowledge of mental health issues and creative work helped to establish an open atmosphere wherein students explored and expressed their most personal feelings and experiences within the structure of creating their very own art/recovery book. The art book form allowed for a narrative to develop in a way that might have been missing in pictures alone or in a solely written work form.
Using basic principles of recovery as a theme, artists uncovered deep feelings in real time as their artwork evolved. Speaking on the class, Brian Karas remarked, “It was a profound experience for me as a teacher to witness and I’m grateful to the artists for their courage to openly share that with me.”
The display and reception will be held Saturday July 2nd at the Mental Health Awareness and Creative Arts Gallery located at 717 Columbia Street Hudson, NY from 1- 3 pm.
For information on the artists and associated activities of the Mental Health Awareness and Creative Arts Gallery simply go to their website at https://stigmafree.art/
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