Artful recoveries

Deirdre Newman

When Andrew Salazar used to get angry, he would use drugs.

He was eventually arrested for using drugs, selling drugs and

committing grand theft, and sent to live at Phoenix Academy of Orange

County, part of Phoenix House, a national substance abuse treatment

organization.

Now when the 17-year-old feels a burst of anger coming on, he

lights some incense, listens to music or plays with his dog.

Andrew, a soft-spoken teenager with a goatee and braces, credits

his transformation to Art & Creativity for Healing, a program that

helps people deal with negative emotions and traumatic experiences

through painting.

“It makes you have a new strength when you’re drawing,” Andrew

said. “It’s a new way to use the [negative] feeling.”

Laurie Zagon created Art & Creativity for Healing as a nonprofit

in November 2000 after running it as a volunteer effort for more than

10 years. It serves more than 6,000 children, teens and adults in

Orange and Los Angeles counties.

Phoenix House offers a basic and advanced art class for its

clients who live at the academy in Santa Ana and another class for

those that have finished the live-in program and are back in their

own communities. One Tuesday a month, the former live-in clients and

some of their parents go to the Country Inn by Ayres for the artistic

sessions.

DRAWING FROM WITHIN

At the start of each session, facilitator Steve Kittell leads the

students through a warm-up exercise of writing four feelings they’re

feeling on a white piece of paper and then painting them, using a

different color for each one.

Some approach their canvas like Jackson Pollack would, randomly

splattering paint here and there. Others use their cotton swabs and

sponge paintbrushes more delicately, creating distinct figures and

shapes.

One student painted ram horns to illustrate feeling stubborn. Many

used red and black, which are common colors for representing anger,

Kittell said.

When they were done, volunteers displayed their paintings on a

board in the front of the room and Kittell asked them to share a

little bit about the feelings they painted.

Then it was on to the main painting of the evening. Kittell asked

the students to draw a painting called “My Anger.” And this time, he

gave them carte blanche to use as many colors as they wanted.

“Several of you said you had some anger,” Kittell said. “I want

you to get in touch with a time you were really angry. Hear the

sounds and feel the feelings. How does it come out?”

To enhance the reflective mood, Kittell put on some music that

started out as turbulent as the emotion he was asking them to convey.

Many of the students started coating their entire paper in black

paint. Others drew symbols like a skull and crossbones.

EXPRESSIVE ART

Volunteers put the students’ work on easels, and when the students

discussed their work, they delved deeper into their feelings.

“I didn’t like doing it because I didn’t think my painting would

express enough what I wanted to put down,” said Sarah Escobar, 19,

who came to Phoenix House to overcome her negative attitude and drug

abuse.

“I just don’t like feeling like I’ve been left so when I felt that

way, I get pretty mad.”

Eddie Savidan, 18, who went to Phoenix Academy for help with

ditching school, getting drunk and fighting, first looked on the art

program with disdain. He preferred using his body as a canvas for

tattoos instead of painting.

After four months in the program, though, Savidan has grown to

enjoy it. And he appreciates the positive effect it is having on him.

“I honestly think it helps out kids who need someone to reach out

to,” Savidan said.

Savidan’s mother, Michelle, is one of the parents in the class.

The parents do the same painting exercises as their children. She

said she has seen a dramatic change in her son’s demeanor since he

began painting.

“It helps in the process of him getting over his tough exterior

and being angry to getting in touch with his emotions and knowing

it’s OK to feel,” she said.

Adriana Ibarra, 18, enjoys the artistic therapy so much that she

uses the little art books the students get from the class as drawing

journals, she said.

“When I was at Phoenix House, I got all angry because I didn’t

want to go [there],” she said. “Then I would get my anger out through

art.”

Even the Phoenix Academy re-entry/live-out counselor Jeron Jones

gets in on the artistic action. He takes the class to help him deal

with the emotional challenges of counseling the students in the

class, he said.

“I’m the sponge that soaks up their issues and problems,” Jones

said. “I need to find a way to release that.”

Many of the students agree that the more often they paint their

emotions, the easier it is to deal with them.

“I’m really in touch with my anger,” said David Jones, 18. “I can

pinpoint it and see what’s making me mad.”