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Valerie
Having been a practicing artist for over 30 years I then completely lost my way about 12 years ago - due to many external pressures in my life as well as a crisis of confidence about the work I was making. I retreated to small notebooks and within these secret worlds I felt safe to continue. I had a stroke last year which came as a massive shock so I’m now hoping to find the courage to emerge from the shadows and find the confidence to start painting again.
Valerie's work is below. Just click on a image to enlarge.
Valerie's testimonial
The course has been a wonderful way of connecting to a group of lovely people - all with their different struggles - but with the common aim of experimenting with creative activities to assist their recovery.
Ali and Paul were amazing facilitators and Luke was a wonderful volunteer: the atmosphere was supportive and encouraging, fun, creative, innovative and utterly unique. ‘Poem Brut’ felt like a great starting-point for all manner of exploration and my only complaint is that it’s too short! A 12-week course would really enable participants to get to know each other better and it would help everyone increase their confidence - as well as developing their artistic talents.
Also it would have been great if the classes were two hours long as it always felt like there wasn’t quite enough time to really ‘play’ and explore and at the end of each session it would have been great to have more opportunity for discussion/feedback. This is not a criticism - just an observation - I hope to sign-up again!
Thanks to everyone for this lovely opportunity.