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When it comes to mental relief, sometimes the fix isn’t in a pill bottle or a meditation app—it’s in a brushstroke. A messy one, a colorful one, a big or small one is fine. It’s not about being good. It’s just about being honest.
Leah Devora, the owner of the new Arttherapy Café & Gallery Downtown, knows a thing or two about this. She’s not here to analyze or fix you. She’s here to hand you some paint and let you rediscover your inner child while allowing yourself a break.
“We serve art as the main course,” she says. “I wanted to appeal to people who want healing on an emotional level, spiritual and physical release it with art.”
Devora’s personal journey, which involves working as an art therapy guide with foster children and at-risk individuals as well as dealing with her own personal traumas, has showed her the power that simple creativity can have to heal and manage inner turmoil.
Here are her tips for unwinding and destressing with art.
Let the process be the therapy.
Instead of focusing on what you’re creating, think about how you’re creating. The act of brushing, smearing or scribbling is where the healing begins. Devora encourages you to lose yourself in the motion, not the outcome. “A lot of people don’t realize until they start working with art or any other physical mediums like sculpture, how much of a release is in your endorphins, in your brain,” she says. “And when you’re feeling depressed and down, it helps to just draw and throw paint.” It’s a refreshing take on creation given our collective tendency to overthink and overplan. But once you get past the initial block, you’ll be able to channel free-flowing creativity.
Use color to express emotion.
If you’re feeling unsure of where to start, Devora suggests asking yourself what color you feel like today. Oftentimes that simple question can snowball into a spontaneous range of reflective thoughts and can help pinpoint exactly what you’re feeling. “I get people who come in and say they have no idea what to do,” she explains. “That’s fine. We do anything. I give them paint, different colors, and ask then, ‘What are you feeling today?’ We meditate, we pick a color mode, and we work expressively.” That freedom to choose, to feel, and to respond is what makes the experience therapeutic. And while it may feel silly at first, once you identify and correlate colors with emotions, it will become natural to match one with the other.
Reconnect with your inner child.
Devora says many people walk through the door convinced they aren’t creative and can’t even draw a stick figure. Her response is to get them to draw that stick figure. What follows is often surprising, even to the artists themselves. “When you’re a child, you’re free. You’re just making art. No one’s telling you that you can’t do things yet,” she says. “And then as you get older, you kind of shut down emotionally.” From paint throwing to expressive painting to pet portrait work, art can help with reconnecting with your inner child. “You come here to be yourself and be at peace,” Devora says. And sometimes, peace looks like splattered neon acrylic on a canvas you never planned to fill.
Arttherapy Café & Gallery 353 E. Bonneville Ave., arttherapycafe.com. Tuesday-Saturday, noon–6 p.m.
3 art projects to help you unwind
We could all stand to take a deep breath and decompress. Devora has three simple projects that can help:
Grab some paint and just move your hand.
Head to Blick Art Materials or Michael’s and pick up a cheap paint set and a brush. Nothing fancy. “Start playing with the paint, just playing and getting used to your hand moving back and forth,” says Devora. “And if you’re feeling adventurous, close your eyes and keep going. It’s a good way of channeling out anything.”
Turn your junk mail into a work of art.
Don’t toss out those ads and in-mail offers, tear it up into little pieces and create a story. Whether it’s a magazine, old receipts, or whatever’s lying around, turn it into a collage. Devora says that this is an easy way to create a vision board. Don’t overthink it, just stick the pieces together and see what happens.
Zone out with a mandala book.
Buying a mandala coloring book is one of the easiest ways to recoup your mental energy after a long week. Although the intricate designs might look intimidating, it’s surprisingly soothing. Grab some markers or colored pencils and just start filing in the shapes. “It’s a great way of focusing without pressure,” says Devora.
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