From a May 2009 NYEA EXPRESSIVE ARTS TRAINING PROGRAM graduate …
Ten students completed their year-long study in May 2009 with portfolio presentations and a closing ritual held at Denie’s home. It was an extremely compatible group, ranging in age from 23 to 79, all young at heart and old souls. Here is a comment from one of this year’s students about her experience:
“Personally: I have tried to become more in touch with how I feel…how my body feels. I’m so cognitive that sometimes I have no idea why I feel upset because I’m thinking about it, not feeling it. Also, I’ve been using drawing (mostly oil pastels) to get in touch with what’s going on inside me. I had an amazing experience in December. One day I sat down and drew this woman’s face…it was as if I gave a face to what I was feeling inside. I hung it on the wall, it was alive. I could see it and I felt relief. It was like I took it out of myself. Professionally: I am learning a LOT! I try to work with clients gently now. I just do things differently now. Expressive Arts is definitely more aligned with how I want to work with people.”
from Denie …
You can read an interview from April 2009 with Denie by writer Barbara Shema, by clicking here.
Video poetry …
In March 2009, the Continuing Education class at NYEA spent a day at the studio/workshop of Jason Cosco, an area musician and installation artist, to play around with videography. We used video cameras and digital cameras to record our experience, editing by turning the camera on and off, responding to the space that was filled with odd, weird and wonderful objects. Jason assembled the footage into a video collage capturing the surprising juxtapositions of objects.
You can view the video poem created in response to the experience by one of the participants, Carolee Sherwood, by clicking here.
