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Exhibit Spotlights Art as Therapy for Patients
By Sarah Kucharski
Staff Writer
Pastel pink-and-green fish struggle
against the canvas current; their leaf-like
fins rub against each other. Perhaps
they’re running away from something,
perhaps they’re learning to move on.
Either way, it’s “SalmonEila & Tunaßaba
in the Ascent Up Fish Mountain,” a pas
tels-on-paper sketch created by one of
the third floor’s visiting artists.
Through a departmental initiative to
encourage self-expression, patients in
the Schizophrenia Treatment and
Evaluation Program (STEP) on the third
floor of UNO’s Neurosciences Hospital
are exploring their inner selves using
the arts as their oudet. The initiative has
culminated in “Brushes With Life,”
STEP patients’ exhibit of their own
mixed media art work.
Subject matter and style in “Brushes
With Life” is as varied as that in any tra
ditional art museum. The exhibit
includes everything from birds without
wings and pumpkins to verses about
snow and abstract art in the form of col
lages, needlework, charcoal sketches,
paintings and poems.
“Brushes With Life” was originally
conceived by Wren Crenshaw, a senior
recreational therapist at UNO Hospitals.
“We were recognizing that in the past
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DTH/EMII.Y NF.TZEI,
Ramell Moore is a featured artist in the new art gallery
located in UNC's Neurosciences Hospital.
(patients) had created what we consid
ered to be really good artwork,” he said.
In connection with the hospital’s
Facility Enhancement Committee,
Crenshaw organized a group of doctors,
nurses, therapists and designers who
were interested in turning the patients’
self-expressions into something more.
After several months of collecting,
By Brian Bedsworth
Assistant Arts & Entertainment Editor
matting and framing STEP patients’ art
work, “Brushes With Life” was bom,
shedding new light on what is com
monly viewed as a debilitating and
frightening mental disease.
“A lot of people think that schizo
phrenia is split personalities or multiple
personalities and really have no idea
what people with schizophrenia really
Thursday, February 8. 2001
Artistic Expression Helps Inmates
Reform Themselves, Help Others
The N.C. Correctional Institution for Women is an ugly
place. Squat, red-brick buildings; tall, razor-wire fences; guards
and gatehouses make for a gray landscape. But one woman
has found beauty in this drab environment -a beauty that
she says is helping her to become a better person.
Renee Morton looked at the projection slides laid out on
the table and smiled. They are pictures of works of art she
has done, one of which
won her first place in
the N.C. Department
of Correction’s art
contest last year.
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“I’ve always
admired art,” said
Morton, 44, who is
serving a 35-year
sentence on drug
charges. “I basical-
ly taught myself. It
takes a lot of time,
concentration and
development. It
takes a lot of
energy, too.”
Morton’s
work, brighdy
colored por
traits of smil-
DTH/BRENT CLARK
Renee Morton, an inmate at the N.C. Correctional
Institution for Women, hopes to pursue a career in art.
ing family and friends done with colored pencils
or paint, doesn’t reflect her grim surroundings.
But it does reflect is the artist’s increased confi
dence and sense of self-worth.
“Art has helped me to better my train of
thought,” she said. “It’s helped my ability and
my capability.”
The therapeutic powers of art have long
been recognized in prison systems around the
country. Now various organizations are latch
ing on to the idea that art can help rehabili-
suffer from,” said Dr. Nancy Clayton, a
psychiatrist with the STEP program. “An
overwhelming majority of schizophren
ics are not violent,” she said.
In truth, people with schizophrenia
are prone to many of the same symp
toms associated with depression, includ
ing difficulty socializing and motivation
problems. Patients often become with
drawn out of fear of their symptoms
occurring in social situations.
Crenshaw believes that the positive
attention drawn by “Brushes With Life”
has improved several patients’ self
esteem and self-concept. “Patients are
learning more about themselves and
what they can and can not do,” he said.
The exhibit, located on the third floor
of the Neurosciences Hospital, drew a
crowd of almost 200 to its opening Jan.
9. Attendees included hospital staff,
members of the surrounding communi
ty and several STEP patients who had
contributed their work.
The opening allowed patients to
socially interact with those interested in
their projects and perhaps be recognized
for their artistic accomplishments, rather
than their disease, for the first time.
Consequendy, “Brushes With Life” is
helping to destigmatize mental illness.
“If you’ve ever lived with a mental
See ART, Page 6
Not So Fast, Freddie Teen prince Freddie Prinze Jr.
(below) looks a bit befuddled over his new role as
an action hero in "Head Over Heels."
••• P<*% e 7
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Page 5
tate prisoners and are using it to help the community at large.
“Art improves inmates, and if you improve inmates they are
better citizens when they get out,” said Lynne Vantriglia, founder
of Art Behind Bars, a nonprofit organization in Key West, Fla.,
that helps inmates use art as a form of community service.
Vantriglia, an artist, started the group in 1994 following a tour
of Florida’s Monroe County Jail.
“I was appalled at the iack of anything productive for the
inmates to do,” she said, herself a victim of a violent crime.
Art Behind Bars offers art classes in the Monroe County Jail
and supplies inmates with paper,
or the charity of the inmate’s choice.
“I felt that (inmates) had these gifts that they could use to give
back to the people they had harmed,” Wolfenden said.
Fullwood is on death row for the 1985 murder of his daugh
ter’s mother. He started drawing and painting after his sentence
began, and realized he could use his new talent to help people.
“I was talking to him about his artwork,” said Wolfenden.
“One day he said, ‘Well, I want to use it to make restitution.’”
By selling postcards of Fullwood’s art, Restitution Inc. has
started a fund to pay for his daughter’s college education.
See PRISON, Page 6
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DTH/EMILY NETZEL
Robert Longmire's "Sunshine Horse" is featured in a show spotlighting
work from patients in UNC Hospitals' schizophrenia treatment program.
paints, pencils or whatever else
they need for their art
The organization sells the
inmates’ work at art shows or
donates them to charities who
auction them off. In the end, all
the proceeds go to charity.
Over the past six years, Art
Behind Bars has raised almost
$30,000 for groups like Habitat
for Humanity and the American
Red Cross.
Chapel Hill’s Restitution Inc.
is another group helping inmates
to help others. Lawyer Betsy
Wolfenden and her husband,
Michael Fullwood, founded the
organization in 1998 to sell art by
death row inmates, donating the
proceeds to the victims’ families