Art with Heart - A Toolkit

We’ve partnered with Counseling & Support Services for Youth (CASSY) to create this toolkit for you to explore healing through art making and reflection. CASSY partners with Bay Area schools to provide resources and professional, on-campus mental health services to students free of charge. We hope to connect the NUMU community to CASSY as a mental health resource, and provide some inspiration for youth, families, and adults to turn to art making in difficult moments of life. Through art we can reveal how we feel, take steps to heal, build empathy, and share our experiences with others.

“Our mission is to de-stigmatize mental health services and make supporting students’ social and emotional well-being the norm in our local schools. We want to provide all students with the continuity of support they need, from the first day of kindergarten until they graduate from high school, to be successful in school and life.” --Marico Sayoc, Executive Director of CASSY

CASSY’s Instagram: @cassybayarea
CASSY’s Facebook Page
Crisis Line: 1-855-278-4204

ACTIVITIES

CASSY has many mental health resources over on their website that can help you or your child handle feelings of anxiety, stress, and sadness. We’ve created and collected some key activities here for your reference. Head on over to their website to peruse all that they have to offer.

Disclaimer: These activities do not replace the experience of meeting with a licensed therapist. If you’d like to get connected with a licensed therapist we encourage you to reach out to CASSY for next steps.

Reveal It to Heal It: ArtNow

ArtNow is NUMU’s annual juried Santa Clara County high school art exhibition and educational program. The ArtNow Exhibition and supporting programs offer opportunities for high school student artists, from Palo Alto to Gilroy, to gain real-world experience in participating in a juried museum exhibition. Each year, a new theme is chosen for the exhibition and students are asked to submit works based on that theme.

Art can be a tool to express deep feelings and address topics that are hard to talk about. Over the years, high school students in ArtNow have explored themes of identity, isolation, self-image, perseverance, mental and emotional health through their art. Below are some examples to help inspire you to create your own artwork to reflect on how you may be feeling. Through the creative process of art making, we can uplift ourselves and others through shared experience.

Click here to view all of the past ArtNow Themes + Catalogs. Past ArtNow themes have included:

  • 2022 - Brave New Worlds

  • 2021 - Good Trouble

  • 2020 - Water

  • 2019 - Dare

  • 2018 - Perspectives

  • 2017 - Choices

  • 2016 - Social Matters

  • 2015 - Bridges: Facing Challenges

  • 2014 - Response: Art is a Conversation

  • 2013 - Art + Tech + Culture 

SERINE KUGLER
I’m ok
Acrylic on Canvas
ArtNow 2022 Brave New Worlds
People’s Choice Award

Grade 12
Los Gatos High School
Instructor: Mark Yanowsky

“This piece is a take on the issue I want to see fixed in my brave new world, the issue of mental health. The woman in the painting looks peaceful, with the exception of the single golden tear falling down her cheek. This is the first sign that something is wrong, showing the physical emotions of her thoughts. Growing out of her head are invasive weeds, representing the disease that spreads through people with mental illnesses. It is camouflaged as harmless flowers, just like how mental illness is not easily detected, and often overlooked.”

Reflection Exercises

Inspired by the themes above, here are some reflection questions for you to journal about. We hope that some of these themes and questions can help you take a moment to reflect and perhaps inspire you to make art about how you feel:

  • When do I feel brave?

  • What color/image/place comes to mind when you think of bravery?

    • Draw a self portrait of a moment that you felt brave.

  • Do you have a special memory with water? Perhaps swimming with friends, making tea, or gazing at the ocean… Describe your memory in detail and how you felt in that moment.

    • Make a piece of art to honor that memory. You could take a photo, create a collage, or draw a picture.

  • What is a perspective that you have that you want to share with others?

    • Write down your perspective in the middle of your page and create a mind map of around it of all the things in your life that are important to you. Draw lines connecting all of the words on your page.

  • Imagine you’re crossing a bridge: What is the bridge made out of? What’s under the bridge? What’s at the other side?

    • Draw a picture of what you see.

Museum Mindfulness: Checking In with Yourself

Visit a local art museum and bring a journal with you, something to write down some reflections. Here are a few art museums in Santa Clara County:

Here are some suggestions on how to practice mindfulness during your museum visit, while getting inspired by the art around you:

  • Before you enter the museum, write down how you feel that day. Be honest with yourself.

  • Take time to explore the art at the museum and make note of elements of the artwork that are speaking to you. This could be the symbols, colors, textures, words, sounds, etc.

  • Find a piece of art that speaks to you. Reflect in your journal on how the art makes you feel. What about this artwork do you like? Is there something about it that you don’t understand? Is there an idea being expressed that resonates with you?

    • Draw a sketch of this artwork in your journal.

  • At the end of your museum visit reflect on how you feel. Do you feel differently than before your visit?

  • Create an artwork at home inspired by the artwork that resonated with you at the museum:

    • Explore using similar materials, colors, shapes, textures, or symbols.

BE INSPIRED: HOW TO FIND INSPIRATION

Video by Lavendaire

Ever feel uninspired or in a rut? Here are some tips on how to get inspired again! No matter where you are in your journey, I hope you can find that spark of joy, light, and love within you and in your life.

// Ways to Find Inspiration

1. Make a list of things you love to do, then do them
2. Explore a hobby or learn something new
3. Go out into nature
4. Listen to podcasts or audiobooks
5. Discover new music
6. Get out of your comfort zone
7. Talk to people & learn from different perspectives
8. Journal for self discovery
9. Collect & seek inspiration
10. Relax, be patient & enjoy the ride

CALM DOWN JAR

A simple DIY calm down jar to help kids better tolerate or manage uncomfortable emotions. Presented to you by Marlena Coelho-Sousae.

Ingredients:

  1. Corn Syrup/Glycerin

  2. Glitter

  3. Food Coloring

Steps:

  1. Grab mixing bowl.

  2. Pour in half a cup of Corn Syrup/Glycerin

  3. Pour in half a cup of water

  4. Mix the glycerin and water. Make sure you cannot see any of the Glycerin.

  5. Pour the mixture back into a water bottle (using a funnel can make it easier)

  6. Pour in a tablespoon of glitter. Use multiple sizes/colors.

  7. Add food coloring.

  8. Add water cap back onto the bottle and shake well.

  9. Add a few drops of dish soap to help the glitter not get stuck on the sides of the bottle.

How to use:

This is a wonderful activity if you notice your child is feeling upset, anxious, or uncomfortable. They can grab the jar and shake it up and imagine that the glitter represents all of the different feelings they have inside. If you get them to name them out loud, it can be powerful. Just naming our emotions can greatly reduce their intensity. Tell them it is okay to have strong feelings and we can calm those thoughts and our bodies as well. One way to do this is to let our thoughts settle like glitter in the jar. As the jar is spinning, set it on a surface and calmly watch with your child until the glitter and your minds calm down. You can also have them notice all the different colors and textures. Have them explore different ways they can shake up the jar to make different patterns in the water. They can also count how long it takes for the glitter to settle in the jar. This activity engages their senses while helping them focus on the present to help reduce stress and be a relaxing distraction.

 
 
 
 

Toolkit Created by Michèle Jubilee, NUMU’s Education Curator

Questions? Email education@numulosgatos.org