Creative Music and Creative Painting

This week we were asked to create art while listening to music.  I did two separate pieces using two separate pieces of music.  I decided to use these circle cardboard pieces as my canvases.  They allowed me to have a boundary but also explore my creative flow in a circle.  The first piece of music I used was a piece of music by Balmorhea titled The Winter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9cVN4ZqNIM

My art work reflects a use of multiple colors of blues, the continuous flow and dimension.  While I was creating this I did a lot of reflection on the past semester and all the work I have done and how its all melted together to provide me with a complex and depth background and thought process.  How I look at compassion and my work differently than before.  My continued journey into my work with arts in healthcare.

The second piece I created I used a piece of music by Air Max '97 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvOTowxAnZU

This music has a more electronic funk to it.  The piece I created with this is brighter and has lines and fading.  While paining this I was really having fun and getting very excited for my future, the end of the semester and whats to come next.  The bleeding of the colors within the lines represents for me all the crossover I have throughout all my work and how I learn all the time and how excited I am to learn even more! 

Program Implementation: Boots on the Ground & the Bird's Eye View; Advocacy and Visibility.

As our course comes to an end we were asked to reflect on our course theme's: Program Implementation: Boots on the Ground & the Bird's Eye View; Advocacy and Visibility.  As I reflected on our work on program implementation I thought about connecting the dots.  When creating a program you make a bunch of dots.  Dots being ideas, themes, communities and locations.  As you begin to piece it together the lines start to form.  Finding the proper locations, creating a budget, finding the community and looking for funding.  The dots connect and lines and the program begins to take a form.  I started with drawing the dots, different sizes and shapes.  I then used different colors to connect the lines, then used a light colored pencil to fill in the shapes I created.  This entire creative process this week really was a reflection for me.  To consider what I've learned through this entire course and the entire process of shaping a program.  While I'm still connecting the dots of it all, this piece of art is a reminder of they will all connect eventually! 

Evaluating Happiness

A major part of arts in medicine is finding the funding for the work, being able to provide the services for free to the community of people but also valuing the art and the artist in residence.  The majority of the funding comes from grants.  A large part of grants is the evaluation process.  How can you show results from your work.  A very common evaluation used is a simple feedback survey.  These anonymous surveys allow for data that can be analyzed.  For my creative practice this week I created a happiness evaluation.  I decided to go to a popular shopping area here in Gainesville and hand out 50 surveys.

On a Friday evening 6:00-6:30 I went to the Archer Road Trader Joes shopping area loaded up with clipboards, pens, and surveys.  I decided to wait out site the area between Trader Joes and other shopping areas.  When I approached people I asked them if they would take one minute to circle a quick answer on my survey for happiness.  At first I was a little nervous so I think people were as well, but the more I asked the more comfortable I got!

After I collected 50 responses I used the data to asses that target area.

Out of 50 people surveyed

21: Very Happy
12: Happy
13: Average
4: Sad
0: Very Sad

This evaluation showed me that the majority of people in that area at that time were average or above with the mast majority very happy.

During one survey the older gentleman said to me, I was kind of sad but now that you asked how I was I'm happy.  Showing that simple actions can really turn peoples days around.  

Evaluations can be fun!!

Included is the blank evolution form and a view filled out forms.

Symbol of Compassion

This week we were asked to create a symbol of compassion.  After pondering the thought for a while and reading our weekly readings, I wasn't sure what would be able to capture compassion.  A single symbol.  So many thing within our lives have a symbol a cross, Buddha, peace sign, smiley faces ect. What could be my personal symbol for compassion.  Compassion is something that is never ending its continuous but constantly changing.  It has dimensions, levels and textures. Something that is necessary to life.  Much like water.  We need water to survive but water also is constantly changing and has complex levels, dimensions and textures.  So for my symbol for compassion I'm using Clark Little Photography for some assistance.  Clark Little Photography is based out of Hawaii.  This image was a beautiful example of compassion for me.  The wave symbolizes the every changing dynamic of compassion, the consistent flow but strong powers.  The sun also captures how compassion can shine light into new directions, ones you may have not known before.  The symbol of a wave captures compassion for me also because waves are happening all the time, even we aren't seeing them.  The ocean is huge and waves are always happening, much like compassion.  There is always compassion happening around the world the same as waves.

Photography: http://www.clarklittlephotography.com

Humans of Cheer

 Brandon Stanton’s Art Initiative Humans of New York is a collection of his findings as he goes around New York City and takes peoples pictures that he meets on the streets in the city.  After the photograph he talks to them for a minute.  The humanization of his work is so powerful, to see the collection of images really captivates me.  So this week we were asked to do our own response to Brandon's work.  I thought about it all week, becoming slightly obsessed with the idea.  Who would I find it had to be perfect I was searching as I was walking places.  Nothing had come to me until I was out of town this weekend judging a cheer and dance competition in Orlando.  First of all the world of cheer and dance is like a different universe a very unique collection of people.  When I was on a break I was heading to the concession stand when I noticed this gentleman.  Full blown wig, boa, skirt, leg warmers just casually walking around.  Now normally passing this guy you would be taken back.  But in the world of cheer and dance competition you are used to seeing a large display of team spirit.  Usually in the form of signs and sometimes moms of the cheerleaders, but commonly not the dads.  I smiled at him and he goes "you like my outfit" I said I actually do can I take your picture?  He said of course and flashed me his big smile.  I snapped a quick picture with my phone and told him thank you.  He ended up sharing with me the story behind the outfit.  He said that it wasn't a bet which is what most people think.  He then proceeded to tell me one of the most touching stories I have ever heard.
His wife passed away tragically from cancer, she was diagnosed and gone in 3 months.  They had one daughter who was 8 at the time.  He said it was the hardest time in his life.  He had no idea what to do, his wife had been the caretaker for their daughter and he was a working man.  When she died he didn't know what to do. His daughter had been cheerleading and loved it and his wife instructed him to be sure to let her keep cheering.  Before his wife passed he had never been to anything involved with his daughters cheerleading, they would travel on the weekends he would stay and golf.  After the death he encouraged his daughter to keep cheerleading, and she did.  It became something they bonded over.  Rather than staying late in the office or going for drinks with the guys after work he was rushing out of the office to make it to the 4:30 practice and bringing snacks for her at 6:30 then picking her up at 8:30.  He had no idea the work she put into the sport, nor had he ever appreciated all the work his wife had done as well.  As the competition season approached one of the moms from the cheerleading gym asked if he was going to the competition.  He said he remembers looking her dead in the face and having no clue what to say.  He did go to the competition.  He had no idea what was going on but when his daughters team got on stage he said he went crazy.  He felt like he was watching the Super Bowl.  His daughter is now 15 and cheerleading has become their lives together.  She hopes to pursue it in college and he will be right by her side.
After this interaction I really started to think about all the people we pass every day.  We have no idea about what is going on in their lives, what they have gone through. We maybe have a brush of a shoulder with them.  Today we barely even make eye contact because we are looking at our phones. I do this all the time, walk and look at my phone never taking time to look at my surroundings or fellow pedestrians around me.  As we walk through life I think the skills of eye contact and listening may be the most compassionate skills we can acquire.  

Nature of Relationships & Ethos

Ethos to me means the character of someone.  Something that I find as a personal character trait of mine that I have struggled with finding the balance with both my relationships in personal life and in work life is boundaries.  This week I created a piece of art that I felt showcased the boundaries of life.   In each part of our lives we have boundaries. Within my life it falls in the hospital, dance studio, personal time and school work.  I struggle to find the right balance of alone time for self care, time for preparation and energy to each activity.  This art work captures this the white lines in a abstract pattern represent the boundaries and how mine overlap between each part of my life.   The different shades of blue represent the different parts of my life.  My different jobs, school, family and other personal lives.  You can see in the artwork that the white lines aren't perfectly straight and paint has created an uneven edge, this is very true with my boundaries within my life.  Sometimes I cross my own boundaries.  The natures of our relationship and ethos fall very much on boundaries.  In order to bring myself 100% to my work I have to be sure to give myself personally 100% of recovery time to accommodate all the other parts of my life.  Finding the balance in a constant struggle and its a constant recalibration throughout ones life.  

Compassion

This week the paintings we viewed showed young children and their mothers.  One depicted a mother washing the feet of a young child another of the mother looking at her sleeping baby.  I think that this image of a mother looking at her baby resonates compassion.  Almost everyone can connect and feel a sense of compassion when witnessing the innocence of a baby and the love of the parent.  As I traveled through my days this week I started to take notice to other moments of compassion I saw, I find myself smiling back a babies and noticing others do the same.  But can we find compassion in other areas besides just children.  The two images I'm sharing capture compassion in my eyes.  The first photo is one of the dancers from Dance for Life sharing a story of his past with a volunteer.  The bottom picture is of a younger gentleman holding an umbrella for an older women in the rain.  Both of these images show compassion.  Listening is such an art, the dancer has such beautiful stories to share.  The image capture really shows her listening and him speaking.  The umbrella scene I caught from my rainy car window, its so common now that we get caught up in the hustle and bustle of our personal lives that we stop to look around and see if we can help anyone else.  This young man assisting this women captures a moment of genuine human connection.  As we go through life we should be taking more time to notice this human connection much like with a mother and baby and noticing the compassion around us.  If we notice more I think we reciprocate more compassion.