- Use art as a creative outlet to explore, express, and cope with your feelings
- Reflect on your identity, experiences, and strengths
- Connect with one another over your creations
- First, make sure everyone has paint supplies and paper. Before getting started, be sure to remind everyone that this activity is not about who can draw the best or who is a talented artist–it’s about expressing ourselves without words. Folks can be as literal or abstract as they’d like! And no one will be forced to share.
- Let everyone know that there will be three prompts to this activity, so they will either need to leave space on their papers or use three separate papers.
- Now it’s time to start with the prompts! We recommend going in order and giving folks 10 minutes in between each prompt.
- Draw a self-portrait. How do you view yourself? Think about all the identities you have and what they mean to you, and capture them in a way that feels right to you.
- Create something that illustrates your resilience. *Resilience means the ability to bounce back from tough times or situations.*
- Illustrate a cause or current event that you are passionate about.
- Once you’ve given everyone 10 minutes for each prompt, provide them with 2 minutes to wrap everything up and add any finishing touches.
- Before moving on to the discussion, you might need to do some clean up with the paint brushes!
- Choose any or all of the following discussion questions. Encourage folks to reflect silently if they don’t want to or don’t have the opportunity to share aloud. They can also journal their responses if they’d like.
- Think about each of your creations. How might one influence another? Or how are they all connected?
- Were any of the prompts difficult for you? Why?
- What came up or came out on paper that surprised you?
- How does this activity relate to mental health?
- Remember to encourage folks to express themselves without worrying about painting the way they think they “should.” This is all up for their interpretation!
- For example, the self-portrait doesn’t have to look like a face or body. It can be whatever they feel represents them.
- Folks don’t have to share aloud if they don’t want to. It’s ok if the discussion is quiet-many folks might be reflecting silently on personal revelations.
- You as student leaders and facilitators should participate as well! Join in after reading the prompts (:
- Your club may consider collaborating with an art club at your school to host a “paint & sip” event. You will need to create flyers to promote the event and both clubs can share the cost of art supplies.
- You can also showcase artists of your identity group to celebrate your unique cultural strengths and pride through the arts. For example, you may showcase and amplify the work of Black artists in honor of Black History Month or LGBTQ+ artists in honor of Pride Month! Consider printing some out or including them in a slide deck for inspiration while folks create their own work of art.