Feel good about drawing

Did you know that every time you color, draw or paint, you may just be helping yourself? Art is not only fun to do, it can relax you, make you feel good about yourself, and give your family time to work together.

Many hospitals use “art therapy” to give their patients a way to share their feelings and deal with frustrations, pain and sadness. Even if you don’t have an art therapy program near you, you can start one for yourself in your own home.

Find an out-of-the-way place and set up a table with paper, pencils, chalks, paints, crayons or whatever you like to use to create art. Then start drawing! Don’t worry about being perfect. Art isn’t about being exact-it’s about expressing yourself in your own unique way. There are no “wrongs” in the world of art.

Send your drawings to TMA, and we’ll use them in publications, on the web site or on note cards. Include your name, address, age, and diagnosis. TMA will only use your first name, age and diagnosis on any materials. Thanks for sharing your creations with us!

Activity: Scribble drawing

Put a piece of paper on the table in front of you. With a piece of chalk in your hand, pretend you’re painting a fence in the air in front of you. Once you’re relaxed, put the chalk on the paper and scribble without lifting the chalk from the paper. Stop when you feel like you’re done.

Look at your scribble and find a picture in your lines. Using a darker piece of chalk, trace the lines of the picture you’ve found. Now forget about the other scribbles and draw things around your picture that fit with it.

Have your parents, brothers and sisters join you-then have fun looking at what everyone in the family created.