Pathways ACCESS Center Art Open House is Eye-Opening
Posted 04/15/2009
Seven paintings, two photographs, six pieces of jewelry and five packets of cards: $245. The empowerment and pride felt by the artists at the Pathways ACCESS Center art open house April 15: priceless.
The Pathways ACCESS Center is a consumer-driven community center for clients of Pikes Peak Behavioral Health Group. In addition to art therapy, the center provides a safe place for clients to utilize career development services, train for job placement, seek support from peers and work toward self-sufficiency. The art show was the first step in a community outreach effort to curb the stigma attached to mental illness and connect clients to the larger community.
“I want the community to see the potential of people who have mental illness instead of the negative side often portrayed by the media,” said Kim Nguyen, art therapist and program manager.
Tisha Gutierrez described her photographs to local artist Jan Mummery like a proud mother gloating about her children. While much of her work was completed in the last five weeks, her journey toward recovery began more than 10 years ago, when she started experiencing anxiety and paranoia associated with early schizophrenia.
“I was scared of everything and everyone,” Gutierrez said.
For several years she battled the stigma and denied herself treatment out of fear of retribution and losing her four children. After a nervous breakdown in 2004, Gutierrez started treatment at a Pikes Peak Behavioral Health satellite office in Pueblo. She has since moved to Colorado Springs and continues treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and schizophrenia.
One of her most effective treatments: paint and canvass.
“Once I get it out on the canvass, it’s not trapped,” she said. “It’s put on the wall and not stored away in my mind.”
Gutierrez sold a painting Wednesday titled “Navigation.”
A driving force behind the center is clients helping clients. A fellow client who suffered a traumatic brain injury could not paint for himself, so Gutierrez painted for him.
“He told me to paint swirls, to put this color here, or that color there,” Gutierrez said. “He navigated me. When I finished, I turned around and said, ‘Look what you did!’”
Several paintings, photographs and jewelry pieces are still available for purchase. Check out our Facebook page to view photos of the clients’ art work. Within the next few weeks, the art work will be posted directly to the web site. Contact Kim Nguyen at (719) 572-6244 for information about purchasing art.
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