The Healing Power of ART & Helping Others

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I am just a painter, an artist desiring to create interesting and beautiful art. Just like many artists, I work during the day to support my family and create art every evening. After receiving severe burns and while in the hospital, I was inspired by my youngest daughter to create a children's magnetic coloring board aquarium when she cut out paper fish shapes, colored them and taped them to the wall at the hospital telling me that aquariums are relaxing and that she made one for me on the wall in front of my hospital bed.  This inspired me to work on making something special for pediatric burn patients. This art project expanded as a two-sided framed metal board aquarium.  Each set comes with ready-to-color flat fish shape magnets and crayons/markers inside a small backpack.  I now make these only by request from hospitals for children admitted and being treated for severe burns.  Since then, I've met many other survivors and have found that adult burn survivors are also in need of encouragement.  As a result, I have been creating artwork connected to engraved plates with encouraging messages attached to the framed art.  I have been sending these paintings to hospital burn centers nationally hoping that the messages engraved on each painting will encourage others going through the difficult burn patient healing process.  Some recent artwork is 3D and is centered around helping those that were suddenly rendered visually impaired learn to read braille.   Please click on the WORD.DOC to the left attached for the complete story of how all of this transpired.  Also, I have written a presentation designed for medical professionals (plastic surgeons and other medical staff for burn patients) in an attempt to help them relate better with their patients.  The goal is to help medical professionals better communicate with burn patients. The purpose is to help burn survivors heal faster by coaching medical professionals to encourage their patients to tap into their healthy passions and then use those passions to help others.  It is in helping others that I have found True Healing Power.  

MAGNETIC COLORING BOARDS.  Dual sided (Sky and Ocean) magnetic boards with fish and bird magnets for kids to color using the markers all inside a small backpack. 

My healing process and a few pics of my burn survivor friends.

PAINTINGS MADE FOR BURN CENTERS with engraved plates that visually relate to each framed painting specifically created to encourage others as they heal.