PRESENT p r e s e n t PRESENTING

If you had told the shy, quiet little girl that I was that one day I would enjoy being filmed or enjoy giving presentations to large groups of people I don’t know that I would have believed you!

Today, I am reflecting on how much I enjoy sharing information and resources through presentations and trainings and courses—how much it makes me feel ALIVE.

I am preparing to give a ‘lunch and learn’ talk to my colleagues at Elder Care Alliance about the beautiful work that my students did about art therapy with older adults. And I’m also preparing for my sessions at the Expressive Therapies Summit next month.

For me, it’s not about being on stage or performing. It is about sharing ideas and resources and being in intellectual and creative community.

What connects you to others? How do you feel about giving talks or presentations?

Woven Life

Image shows several pieces of watercolor paper, painted using salt technique and wet on dry. The red and pink paper has been woven into a piece with rich browns and blues.

Today, I had the opportunity to join Brian Leonard (the filmmaker who created “I See You” a film about the art therapy work I do with older adults) in a guest-lecture session in Sky Bergman’s class in the Art & Design department at Cal Poly, SLO.

As we were answering student questions, and talking about our work, I was thinking about how much I love the interwoven nature of our lives.

Some of the warp and weft that showed up today:

• I deeply resonated with Sabrina Ward Harrison’s book Spilling Open when I was in High School. And my prized book to this day is about Candy Jernigan’s work: Evidence.

• I graduated from Cal Poly.

• Sky and I reconnected when I started working with older adults and she was working on her film. Later, I’d get to see her at a screening of the film in SF.

• Brian and I met through a volunteer project his daughter was part of. They continued to volunteer, and the family spent most Saturdays with me, doing art therapy with older adults at Mercy.

• Brian proposed, filmed, and created I See You.

• Sky encountered the description of the film and realized it included me, her former student.

• We all spoke together today with her students, answering questions that overlapped, interplayed and inspired. As I shared, I recommended the two books above.

• I clicked out of Zoom, so inspired.

• And then I remembered, that just the day before, I had been guiding a live session about weaving with watercolor for ArtSnacks.

Weaving.

What is woven in your life?

Photograph shows a white woman’s hand holding a small, roughly cut heart made of watercolor paper with a salt treatment. The woman has several rings on her third and fourth fingers. The background shows several strips of woven watercolor paper in blue, green, and red. The watercolors were created using salt and plastic wrap.