Art from the Heart

This forum from Art from the Heart, a Burlington City Arts program, is designed to help us feel connected, supported, and healthier through the arts. Posts will offer research backed creative responses to connect community to health, wellness, humor, and culture.

[btvcityarts]

Music as a Journey

By Stephanie Wang

Music is often referred to as healing for the soul, and it is one of my biggest art passions. From sitting at my keyboard to enacting a one-woman-no-audience concert, I love music. Sometimes, the different combinations of melodies and harmonies wrap around my ears like a blanket and tell me that everything will be okay. Other times, the beats are pounding at me to get up and dance. Since COVID-19 and quarantine occurred, life has become quite a bit more stressful. I've found music to be very comforting because the lyrics, melodies, and all the other intricacies of a piece are somehow able to do what I sometimes cannot - express my emotions.

Harvard Health has an article that explains how the music you choose to listen to can influence your emotions because of how music interacts with our brain. Psychology Today explains that the enjoyment of music is processed in the same region our brain processes other things that bring us joy. From the musical aspect, the simplest explanation for this reaction is due to the musical modes in a piece of music. At its most basic form, happy music is often referred to as being in a major scale, while sad, slow music is often found in a minor scale.

A study performed at the University of Toronto, Mississauga also found that a listener's moods are able to change based on "their perceptions of the emotions conveyed by the music." This study used happiness cues based on the major or minor scales of music while also including variables on the rhythmic levels of music consisting of fast or slow beats. Faster rhythms were associated with more happiness cues while slower beats corresponded to more sadness ratings. This certainly explains why WALK THE MOON's “Shut up and Dance” always makes me do exactly what the title suggests - it has a major key and a fast beat!

Additionally, Stanford conducted a study that reported how rhythm impacts our brain. Stronger or slower beats stimulate different types of brainwaves that can influence our mood. According to the University of Nevada, Reno, the most relaxing music sits at about 60 beats per minute. In fact, beats per minute even influences our heart rate by increasing or slowing down depending on the music listened to.

Ever wonder why “Stayin' Alive” is often taught to be hummed when performing CPR? It's because the song has a tempo of 103 beats per minute, which is within the American Heart Association's guidelines to have CPR performed around 100 - 120 compressions per minute. Compressing to this beat, or any song with a tempo within that range, will help keep blood flowing to the brain and the heart while providing enough time for the heart chambers to refill.

Since music has always been dear to me, I'm sharing that love of music in the form of curated, and potentially themed, playlists. Here's a playlist featuring contemporary instrumental pieces that each have the power to take me on a journey.

_______________________________________________

Stephanie Wang is a post-baccalaureate pre-medical student at the University of Vermont, and an Art from the Heart volunteer. Follow her on her journey to medical school as a career changer here.

[btvcityarts]

Daily Post

By Marcia Vogler

My “Daily Post” project began when a friend was diagnosed with cancer and began chemotherapy and radiation treatments. I decided the best support I could give would be to send a postcard every day, to give him something to look forward to and take his mind off the treatment. I started the daily postcards practice anonymously, but it only took a few days before he knew who was responsible. It turned out to be a great spirit booster, something he and his family looked forward to getting every day. They displayed them in a rack on the counter, and re-read them and shared them with friends. 

Having a specific person to share my art with helps me feel more motivated to create, and more connected to meaning and beauty. A postcard is small enough that it can be done in a few moments, yet the good feelings from making and receiving a card can last. 

Below are notes on how I approached several postcard projects in different ways and for different people. I hope these open up straightforward ways for you to use collage, painting, and writing, or some parts of these art forms, to help the people you love feel better and feel loved.

I started the cards by subscribing to a ‘word of the day’ email, and would pick out words that were unusual or funny, and brought up an image in my mind. For materials, I used cardboard recycled from work, acrylic paints, magazine pages, and assorted papers. Sometimes the image would just manifest itself; other times, I made a sentence using the word before I could illustrate it. I most often used matte acrylic medium to glue and seal the images, however occasionally I used school glue or glue stick if I was in a rush. On the note side, I wrote the dictionary entry along with the sentence. I think the writing of the entry took almost as long each day as the image. I had become interested in hand lettering and so tried to vary my letters and make them exciting as an exercise.

At the end of his treatment, I sent the last card with the word ‘vaticination’, meaning ‘prediction’ or ‘the act of prophesying’. The image is of red fingernailed hands reading a crystal ball that says, ‘you will live long and prosper.’ Lucky am I to say that he has.

After the project ended, I made a book to hold the postcards by sewing clear sheet protectors. I had to go back and fix a few. One card had lost a few cut out letters, so it read ‘ood day suns ine’. The card for ‘netsuke’ had completely lost its image of an ivory cat, so the card was an empty frame.    

The second project began when my brother in law was diagnosed with cancer and began his chemotherapy. In between the projects I had kept up with making collages and postcards for other friends and family, and so still had plenty of backgrounds made and materials at hand. I continued with the word of the day practice for the length of his four month treatment.

One of the heartbreaks of my life was the day my dear friend M told me she had triple-negative breast cancer. We had worked together for many years, and were confidantes, co-conspirators, and professional partners, but since her move to New York City we were less connected. It seemed so right to start the postcard a day project for her while she was in chemotherapy. Our mutual love of shoes became my focus, she could wear the 4 inch heels we both admired. An important component of this project was the short note or thought on the message side. As I got into the project, I realized how much we had shared, and just how much I missed having her to talk with and fight with. The “Shoe a Day” collages began with a windfall of pages from the Metropolitan Museum daily calendar. I used only those images for a very long while, finding the right curves or textures in the photographs of the art, and mixing them up with each other. I found humor as well as inspiration in the shapes of the images. Later in the project, as the amount of calendar art dwindled, I started using magazine pages. Furniture and art magazines were preferable to food magazines, which didn’t seem to work at all for me. On weekends I would gesso a bunch of cards and then paint backgrounds. Sometimes I would make 4 or 5 collages at once, while some days I had to drive to the post office at 4:45 to make the mail pickup. Like all things creative, sometimes they came quickly and easily, and sometimes the shoes were ugly, misshapen, or just bad. But I still sent one a day. Although sometimes I made the cards in batches, I wrote the message on the day I sent the card. At first, I tried to make every card a positive, uplifting one, but that got hard after a week even with my Christian Science upbringing. With practice, I got into a rhythm of just noticing a moment in my day, or taking note of a fleeting thought, and saving those up to write about. I didn’t hold back if it wasn’t exactly a positive note, writing sometimes about my anxiety about my children or my work. But I did try to add humor by writing about a very funny situation or moment that we had shared. Sometimes I laughed out loud, and I hoped that Margaret did too. I know she shared them with her friends and treasured each one as it arrived. Sometimes the miles the post cards traveled were a little rough on the cards. On one card, I wrote that it was one of my favorite shoes that I had done.  Margaret told me later that it had come to her with only the heel left of the image.

The “Shoe a Day” project initially lasted from July 11 to December 29, 2012 through Margaret’s first round of chemo, then continued through a round of radiation, more chemo, and finally respite care in 2015. In total, I made and sent 387 cards to her. After her death, her family returned them to me in a special box in which she kept them. Recently I began a new project for another dear friend in treatment, which I call “Bird of the Day”. The process is similar to “Shoe a Day”, but with fantasy birds as the focus. My collage materials this time are my own gelli texture printed papers which I make with acrylic paints and texture tools such as cardboard, string, and notched credit cards. I have found that using matte acrylic medium as both glue and glaze works best for me and keeps the image intact even through some rough handling. After I set the pieces with the medium, I cover the entire piece, then wipe it gently off with a wet paper towel. This keeps the cards from being sticky after they’re dry. My notes are a bit different these days, focusing on the beauty of nature and weather, and the daily struggle of keeping safe and sane. But as before, I try to pull out one thought each day that is special, a funny coincidence or a cosmic realization, to share with my friend. It has become a sort of meditation for me, a way of making sense of reality and life.

*************************************************************

Marcia Vogler is a mixed media artist, focusing on book arts and collage to express her vision.  She is a firm supporter of the USPS, and sends mail daily from her farm in Charlotte, Vermont.

You can find her daily artwork posted on @marciavogler on Instagram.

***************************************************************

Here are the steps I have developed to make postcards. I hope you will create and enjoy a postcard project of your own. Meditate with art making on your funny coincidences and cosmic realizations, and share with my a friend. STEPS TO MAKE YOUR OWN POSTCARD PROJECT 1) Choose a friend to send your cards to 2) Choose a theme to explore such as words, shoes, birds, etc. 3) Paint basic backgrounds – maybe in small batches 4) Collage on the background 5) Seal the collage with a light coating of school glue [RS5] or matte acrylic medium that you can get at an art supply store 6) Write a note, address, and send! MATERIALS Thick paper – any kind Acrylic paints Glue Matte Medium (acrylic paint that doesn’t have any color pigment, and is not shiny) Magazines Pen or waterproof Markers Postcard postage stamps

[btvcityarts]

Dancing

By Rebecca Schwarz, Art from the Heart Coordinator

Dancing “helps reduce stress, increases levels of the feel-good hormone serotonin, and helps develop new neural connections, especially in regions involved in executive function, long-term memory, and spatial recognition.” says an article from Harvard Medical School “Dancing and the Brain”. It goes on to say “researchers looked at the effects of 11 different types of physical activity, including cycling, golf, swimming, and tennis, but found that only one of the activities studied—dance—lowered participants’ risk of dementia.”

As we age, dancing is “as effective as other types of exercise in improving aerobic capacity” – the journal Complementary Therapies in Medicine “Effects of dance interventions on cardiovascular risk with ageing: Systematic review and meta-analysis.” Dancing our way through the seasons is a wise move. Aerobic exercise is not always fun, but dancing is.

Dancing is fun especially when we let go of thinking there is a right way. It is creative, and playful, and can lead to feeling ecstatic. And, it helps us meet the Health and Human Services guideline for adults to do 5 hours of aerobic activities each week. Plus you soak up the joy and benefits of music. Dancing with yourself, and family dance parties should be respected workout regimes and health interventions.

If you are longing to move in more ways than one, the New York Times offers a way to “Travel the World Through These Dance Tutorials”.  Belly dancing, salsa, break dancing, kizomba, champeta, line dancing, bhangra like a Bollywood movie star, and polkaing all offer different ways to move and connect with cultures. “Not only does dancing provide health benefits, improving everything from cardiovascular strength to bone density to brain activity, moving your body has also been proven to reduce stress and anxiety — which everyone could benefit from right now.”

It is no wonder that cultures around the world use dance to celebrate meaningful moments and create rituals. Think of the whirling dervishes of Sufism, connecting with spirit by spinning and spinning. An ordinary movement of one turn around is repeated until it is extraordinary.

One of my favorite things about the arts is that there is not one right or wrong way. Move and dance however you like as you sense and respect your own body’s limits. A friend describes her approach to Zumba (the Latin and world music workout disguised as a dance party) as thinking of the teacher and participants as dancing with her, and letting go of trying to perfect every move the first time. (I imagine a Bollywood movie scene like this )The dancing with approach helps keep us friendly to ourselves instead of feeling badly when you don’t perfect the moves. Dancing with is more fun, and is a kindness to aging knees, and aching places, and those among us who are more challenged when it comes to coordination. The Mayo Clinic’s article, “What are the risks of sitting too much?” tells us 

"Any extended sitting — such as at a desk, behind a wheel or in front of a screen — can be harmful. An analysis of 13 studies of sitting time and activity levels found that those who sat for more than eight hours a day with no physical activity had a risk of dying similar to the risks of dying posed by obesity and smoking. However, unlike some other studies, this analysis of data from more than 1 million people found that 60 to 75 minutes of moderately intense physical activity a day countered the effects of too much sitting.”

Even if it is just some goofy wiggles, move through life with a bounce in your step. Remember there is no one right way to dance and move – play with motion – any dancing and movement is better than none.

Here are some Bollywood scenes to inspire and entertain you. Imagine it is you in the scene as you dance with them.

“Like true heroes we’ll dance” is a lyric from the song  Jai Jai Shivshankar.

And just because, here is dancing Yoda. 

[btvcityarts]

Writing from a Poem

By Laurie McMillan

Hearing each other’s stories actually raises the feel good hormone oxytocin. Writing our stories has been shown to increase our fighting cells in our immune system, decrease anxiety, get you better test scores if you write beforehand, and wind up with less doctor visits. A daily writing practice along with sharing some thoughts from your writing can do this! And more, writing integrates experience and gives the writer a better sense of themselves, their voice and clarifies values. As we write we make order out of our many thoughts. We see our choices more clearly. We confront old beliefs. As we write we make new connections and see some possible other meanings, from a different vantage point. Read this poem as a springboard to write anything you feel and share it with one or more people if you can (especially people that would not judge you). Note how you feel after doing this! "Allow" By Danna Faulds

There is no controlling life. Try corralling a lightning bolt, containing a tornado. Dam a stream and it will create a new channel. Resist, and the tide will sweep you off your feet. Allow, and grace will carry you to higher ground. The only safety lies in letting it all in – the wild and the weak; fear, fantasies, failures and success. When loss rips off the doors of the heart, or sadness veils your vision with despair, practice becomes simply bearing the truth. In the choice to let go of your known way of being, the whole world is revealed to your new eyes.

Writing Prompt: Spend a few minutes allowing words to spring forth onto the page. You might want to start from the line. ‘There is no controlling life…’

Write for five minutes (or more). Then write about what you feel inside after writing and if you had a particular learning from the writing.

Share what you wrote with a friend.

______________________________________

Laurie McMillan has led diverse groups of people in creative writing explorations for over 20 years, and is a nurse at the University of Vermont Medical Center.

[btvcityarts]

Finding Creativity, Voice, and Supporting Black Artists

By Sara Kassel

I struck out to write this blog post about creativity and I got stuck. In my rounds as an Art from the Heart volunteer, people echo this feeling all the time; I offer them a brush and some paint, and they stop me: Oh no, I’m not really creative. What they’re really telling me is: I’m afraid I won’t know what to do! If I try to do something it won’t be right; it won’t be “good art”.

It’s impossible not to write about racism right now, and I got stuck. I was afraid I wouldn't know what to say. I was afraid that if I tried to say something, it wouldn’t be the right thing.

As a white person, part of my privilege is that I learn about racism instead of living it. With that, it’s my responsibility to use my privilege to work towards dismantling racism. This is a big undertaking, and it sometimes feels like staring at a blank canvas.

When someone tells me they're not really creative, I tell them something that I now needed to tell myself: If you don’t know how to start making art (or how to start dismantling systemic racism), seek inspiration!

I turned to Black artists, writers, and activists to listen and learn. Inspired by their voices and their power, I decided this blog post should serve to amplify them. Art, itself, also amplifies - amplifies messages, experiences, emotions, and perspectives.

By following BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) artists, buying and supporting their work, and championing their successes, I hope you find your inspiration and your voice to fight for justice with love and creativity.

Here I’ve highlighted a few artists from this Vermont Arts Council newsletter, a great resource as it highlights many BIPOC artists living in our Vermont community.

2019 Ripton Elementary School Mural by Will Kasso

The City in My Mind by Deidra Razzaque

Ravoravo by Mikahely

Art comes in many different forms, and it isn’t always visual. Here is a VPR interview with actor and artistic director, Jarvis Green (6 min), and a VPR conversation on race and racism with poet Rajnii Eddins as a guest (48 min).

Remember, inspiration is the beginning – don't forget to put your brush to the canvas! Let your inspiration move you to action!

Art nourishes empathy, which makes it a beautiful place to start. Educate yourself through creative curiosity and allow art to help you keep your heart open.

______________________________________

Sara Kassel is an Art from the Heart volunteer and mental health care worker on the path to becoming an art therapist. Born and raised in Vermont, a connection to nature inspires her art in many mediums, from watercolor landscapes to repurposed textile and clothing design. Sara has formal training in fashion design, fine art, theater, and martial arts, and she also dabbles in poetry, gardening, and dance.

[btvcityarts]

American Music is Black Music

By Rebecca Schwarz, Art from the Heart Coordinator Recently I have been writing about music, and how it can help us move with and through powerful feelings including what may seem to contradict – the happy / sad.  Each year on June 19th the end of slavery is celebrated. This year is the 155th Juneteenth. In honor of this freedom holiday, and keeping the focus on music, I recognize here that the inspired – and deeply inspiring – lineage of uniquely American music, is very much Black music. I am grateful for the ways that music helps us feel energized, or calmer, and supports us in challenging moments. University of California Berkeley’s Greater Good Magazine which focuses on “Science-based insights for a meaningful life” reports “After 15 years of research, we know that gratitude is a key to psychological well-being. Gratitude can make people happier, improve their relationships, and potentially even counteract depression and suicidal thoughts.” Gratitude also seems to help our hearts – in both the physical and emotional senses. I am grateful for music’s ability to help us feel part of a shared identity, to celebrate, and to focus.

As I focus on different songs I hear histories and lived experiences. The arts are among the most long-lived parts of a culture (the word culture is in large part defined by the arts). 

Music helps us listen for American historical roots. For instance, listen to the African ancestry and powerful traditions of story and beautiful melodies in the video below. The griots and griottes of the Mande of Mali and other countries in West Africa are the story holders and tellers of the community – they “maintain genealogies, sing praises, compose songs, play instruments, narrate history, and serve as spokespersons.” The 800 plus years of history of the ancient Malian empire is kept alive in songs passed down through the generations. (Disney used the story of Sundiata – the unifier of Mali – passed down through the griot tradition, to create the Lion King). “In the Heart of the Moon” documentary (runtime 14 minutes) you can see some of the duets of Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabaté and learn more about the Griot tradition. (For more beautiful Malian music: Oumou Sangaré is a leader among the many women artists)

Listen for the similarities in American music, in the related rhythms of Lightnin Hopkins’ blues. 

And Elizabeth Cotton’s blues. 

African American artists and rhythm and blues are foundational for all American pop music that follows – jazz, rock, everything beyond. Black artistic contributions continue to invent and innovate, meeting the moment and moving it forward. 

And, American music, like the country, is a mixture of many. Musical influences from around the world, and from Native Americans are also present. The documentary Rumble highlights the many familiar – but not necessarily seen as native – contributions of Indigenous Americans to American music. Here is the preview.

This podcast (runtime 34 minutes) tells and plays the history of Black and American music. It is from the New York Times’ 1619 project that centers “the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans”. The story begins with Yacht music (who knew that was a thing?), and takes the listener back from working songs and spirituals, to racist minstrel shows that helped normalize prejudice in the north, to jazz, Motown, and beyond.

“There’s a history to this, a very painful history. And in the most perversely ironic way, it’s this historical pain that is responsible for this music… It is strife. It is humor. It is sex. It is confidence. And that’s ironic. Because this is the sound of a people who, for decades and centuries, have been denied freedom. And yet what you respond to in black music is the ultimate expression of a belief in that freedom, the belief that the struggle is worth it, that the pain begets joy, and that that joy you’re experiencing is not only contagious, it’s necessary and urgent and irresistible. Black music is American music. Because as Americans, we say we believe in freedom. And that’s what we tell the world. And the power of black music is that it’s the ultimate expression of that belief in American freedom.”

Next time you are listening to music that is helping you, freeing you from the ordinary, or the difficult, and brightening your day – try taking a moment to feel the gratitude. Feeling the gratitude for the many contributions Black artists have made is good for our individual, and collective, well-being. Today on Juneteenth and every day. 

[btvcityarts]

Sad Music and its Creative Power

By Rebecca Schwarz, Art from the Heart Coordinator

According to The Guardian, some countries now prescribe art to help people feel better, after the World Health Organization recently released a broad review of research on how the arts positively effect health and wellbeing – in both body and spirit. With the country facing the stress of the viral and racial pandemics, people need support in many ways. 

Part of the power of art is its ability to hold together what can seem like conflicting ideas and feelings. We can listen to sad music and feel relief from and a release of sadness while finding our way to the other side. Yet it still may seem surprising that there is a preference for sad music over happy. “Some of the most beautiful and profound listening experiences are associated with sad music.”

While we live in a culture that suggests to us that sadness is a negative emotion, it is still key to popular drama and tragedy stories, TV, and movies. What brings us to watch, read, and listen to what we generally think of as upsetting? In story and music, we can find reflections of ourselves, and practice facing our fears and sorrows. Part of the power of sadness and struggle is that within them, we find what is truly meaningful.

Research shows that “sad music induces pleasant emotion...Listeners felt less gloomy, meditative, and miserable as well as more fascinated, dear, in love, merry, animated, and inclined to dance when they listened to sad music,” compared with how they thought they would feel. Sad music also made listeners feel sad, but not as sad as they thought they would become. When we tune into sad music, we are rewarded with depths of emotion, meaning, and joy.

Gospel music, country ballads, Nina Simone, and protest music (take a listen to this 4/11/20 version of We Shall Overcome) evoke the sad/happy and strong feelings in many people, including me. Music helps me feel more connected. Research shows that feeling isolated has been shown to hurt our health, relatable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and can increase risk of death by 26 to 45 percent. 

Graphic from https://www.hrsa.gov/enews/past-issues/2019/january-17/loneliness-epidemic   

Feeling connected through music can have serious health benefits. Listening to 13 minutes of sad music (choose lyrics you connect with) releases sadness in 91 percent of participants in a recent study, and 87 percent felt more emotionally stable.

Humans are unique in our ability to dance and sing together to the same external pulse. When we are moved by music, our social fabric is woven. Musicians and listeners are continually responding to the currents and emotional needs of now – building community and culture. 

Facing the music, and dancing into it together (and from afar), we can get in sync to create the future we wish to build for future generations. As we build an equitable future, we need many varied and creative tools. When we turn to what is upsetting and face it head-on, we find the satisfaction of honorable and meaningful work.

What music and culture-building work is moving you in this moment? Share your thoughts @btvcityarts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

[btvcityarts]

Musical Daily Allowance

By Rebecca Schwarz, Art from the Heart Coordinator

Current thinking on the origins of music suggests that music helped humans communicate before language. Cave paintings and early music would have helped humans bond. Music making, dancing, and listening help create a sense of shared identity, building up communication and reassurance into group trust that helps us thrive.

Interestingly, animals can’t seem to hear music as we do, with a few exceptions such as monkeys and this cockatoo dancing. 

RESEARCH SHOWS BENEFITS OF MUSIC

Whether music came about from ritual or entertainment, music’s ability to help us feel more energized or calmer is backed up by research. It looks like most people are tapping into the benefits. This study, The Musical Daily Allowance tested 7581 people and found that, “they became happier, had more energy and felt satisfied with life, it gave them control & most laughed more.”

Benefits of listening to just 13 minutes of music include reduced negative thoughts and muscle tension, and increased feelings of contentment and better sleep.

Uplifting music helped an overwhelming majority, with 89 percent having improved energy levels, and 82 percent feeling more in control of their lives and feeling able to take on anything. It sounds like music is a way we can support ourselves through feelings of depression and anxiety.

High-tempo music has also been found to enhance performance during exercise. “When women who were training heard pop songs with over 170 beats per minute, scientists say they began to put in more effort, especially during endurance activities, such as brisk walking, running or cycling.”

Music also helps us release sadness. When we choose songs with lyrics that we connect with, 87 percent of listeners feel more emotionally stable, 91 percent feel relief and release, and 84 percent feel less overwhelmed.

What music helps you feel better? Share your thoughts @btvcityarts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

[btvcityarts]

@uvmmedcenter #zenden spaces are transforming for hospital staff to take a break in. #butterflies, color and #spring sprouts are changing the spaces. Thanks especially to @btvcityarts volunteers @sarasage24 @glasspets and @andreamaloney3899 for helping to make art that can be added onto for the Emergency Department, Hematology Oncology, the labs and more! A nurse says, “Accessible moments of peace is something we all need right now. Thank you.” (at The University of Vermont Medical Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBBmrMzBYd0/?igshid=1cidgpwk3qw18

[btvcityarts]

Inhale, Exhale, Repeat

By Rebecca Schwarz, Art from the Heart Coordinator

Increased comfort, relaxation, pleasantness, vigor, and alertness, and reduced symptoms of anxiety, depression, anger, and confusion – all of these benefits come from slow breathing as shown in this analysis of 15 different research articles on slow breathing techniques. 

Setting up team-building art projects at the hospital recently, I saw some of the Breathe coloring cards drawn by several Art from the Heart volunteers as a gift for hospital Employee Wellness a while back. The cards can be colored in, and on the back are simple steps for breathing for stress relief. 

Breathing helps us feel a sense of calm, decreases heart and respiratory rates, and improves mental clarity by shifting the nervous system from fight-flight response to the relaxation response.

The Breathe coloring pages remind us of this automatic, essential, and basic function. Breathing is simple and profoundly relaxing. We don’t even have to think about it – we are breathed – yet there are ways to help ourselves use the gift of breathing.

Many art forms work with breath: dance, music – didgeridoo (reduces sleep apnea) and other wind instruments especially, and the meditative work of Chinese Ink brush painting are a few that come to mind.

What art forms help you feel better and breathe better? Share your thoughts, download these Breathe coloring pages, and post your artwork at @btvcityarts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

[btvcityarts]

#ZenDen projects have been started :) Here is @btvcityarts board member, artist and nurse Milton Rosa Ortiz who I ran into when installing art for frontline health workers @uvmmedcenter I am hoping more people trace their hands to make a feather to add to the wings. Birds and hands are found in Art all around the world and across time. #artfromtheheart https://www.instagram.com/p/CAJCNcNhr6G/?igshid=165duw0qih5a3

[btvcityarts]

Adjusting to Masks with Humor and the Arts

By Rebecca Schwarz, Art from the Heart Coordinator

This post is from Art from the Heart, a program of Burlington City Arts that is designed to help us feel connected, supported, and healthier through the arts. Blog posts will offer research backed creative responses to connect community to health, wellness, humor, and culture.

Using humor and movements helps to lighten us up and connect us with one another, which is why I feel the need to have a mask with a mustache on it, similar to my Russian immigrant grandfather’s handlebar mustache. 

Wearing masks when out and about is an adjustment. Playing with the idea of the mask with my silly mustache, I can smile and laugh more with the people around me. 

According to the Mayo Clinic, humor and human connection help us feel better. Laughter reduces stress, soothes tension, relieves pain, stimulates circulation, and improves immune systems. 

There is even a word for the study of laughter: gelotology, a word that almost sounds like a joke. Humor and human connections also create better conditions for learning in short- and long-term ways.

Comedy can help get to what is meaningful in fast and fun ways. Think of the court jester or trickster. Some fun might help us get through the adjustment to wearing masks.

Cloth masks (ideally made with soft thick fabrics like flannel, which lucky for us is a local favorite :), can give the feeling of being lost or hidden, unable to connect as easily with the people around us. We breathe, eat, talk, kiss, smile, frown, and express – all through the mouth. The place where our inner and outer worlds meet deserves special attention.

Breathing in the world through a filter makes me wonder, what creative filters we can put on? History has plenty of inspiration and guidance. Reasons for concealing our faces change, but the effects of masks creating character and personality traits remains the same.

Masks and dance go together. Using movements like greeting someone with a small nod of the head, or a small bow, helps us connect with people through the face mask. What if we think of ourselves as dancers in masks; how can our waves, nods, and bows step up to help us – from safe distances – feel connected? 

MASKS, MOVEMENT, MUSIC, KNOWLEDGE, SPIRIT

Special masks, movements, and music are found in social and ceremonial events from carnivals to wisdom traditions. Art as a Verb in Africa: The Masks of the Bwa is a view into to the start of the ritual season with processions, music, costumes, and masks.

Above: Dwo leaf masks. Dwo is the god of new life and springtime. “Art is a verb in Africa, it is something that is done. Art is a prayer, a performance, a statement, a process.”

These patterned masks make visible the spiritual laws and paths to success and respect, and are portraits of abstract beings who were met by the ancestors. 

The checkerboards represent the importance of lifelong learning; the black spaces are knowledge, the white represent a lack of understanding. Zigzags represent the paths of the ancestors. 

In the video, you can see the wearer spinning in place, rotating rapidly so the costume mimics the motion of god’s hands as the earth was molded from a ball of mud. Performers are continually inventing new innovative ways of interpreting the spiritual beings the masks refer to.

In the Northwest Coast of the Americas, Raven masks (the mask below is from the Fleming Museum) are far more than striking objects, they are costumes in dances of the Raven Clan of the Tsimshian people.

PBS video and information on the Git-Hoan Raven Dance and Native American Culture.

“Raven is a central character in Northwest Coast stories. He is believed to be the creator of the physical world and the bringer of light. Raven has supernatural powers, and is also a “trickster” who gets what he wants by playing mischievous tricks on others, changing his shape at will.” 

We too are changing our shape at will – wearing masks for greater health. 

ADDITIONAL CREATIVE AND MEANINGFUL MASKS

Clear face masks help lip readers. If you are hard of hearing, there is the double trouble of not seeing lips, and voices being even more muffled by masks.

DIY American Sign Language Mask:

Dunne-za and Swiss, Vancouver, B.C. artist Brian Jungen cut up and re-stitched Nike Air Jordans into ceremonial masks called Prototypes For New Understanding.

MASK MAKING INSTRUCTIONS

There are many many resources online for mask making. Here are a few:

No sew mask making instructions from the CDC 

For this no sew mask, try inserting some flannel for more filtering. 

For a sewn mask with a pocket for a filter, and a pocket for a wire to follow the shape of your face (makes a better seal, so glasses are less likely to fog up)

What are creative responses with masks that you have seen? Please share your trickster wisdom for making masks and new moves that help us transition to meet the challenges of this moment! @btvcityarts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Image credits (unless noted in text): Brian Jungen Air Jordan Mask; Bwa Masks from Christopher Roy, “Art as a Verb” video, and University of Iowa.