Creative Connections is a newly-opened L’Arche day program at Prince William Street.
About a month ago the Grand Opening occurred at night and one of our members, who works at Key Industries and used to be in the Key Industries In-Key Choir cut the ribbon. Some of us got interviewed.
The Following morning to the afternoon we had an open house and we got lots of visitors who also tried their luck at art.
Sometimes people drop in.
This place is an art gallery where works of people with and without disabilities are hung and displayed.
Sometimes when cruise ships visit Saint John some of their passengers visit this day program.
I am one of the artists. I created some work which is hung: a picture of strawberries with a yellow background, called a wash, a colored leaf which I painted with a green yellow background, again called a wash, another colored leaf without a wash, and a colored painting for which I put globs of paint on an edge and painted down, creating a rainbow of paint.
This day program started as Creative Club, meeting on Thursdays and Fridays all day at All Saints Church’s basement and on Wednesday mornings at Saint John Arts Centre.
The All Saints Church basement has a piano and sometimes at Creative Club there I would play it at breaks.
We contributed art for events such as For the Love of Art, which was held at Saint John Arts Centre, which involved me playing the piano and Hope Springs Concert at Kennebecasis Valley High School Theatre which also involved me playing the piano. Here Gray and I were emcees and we introduced each art and I contributed my jokes and puns. All these events had a good turned out and raised money for L’Arche.
The art involved in For the Love of Art was posters of random objects, buildings, creatures, and people all made completely of cut-out hearts, called Heart City.
The art involved in Hope Springs was flowers and plants made of Papier Mache. Our works were displayed in the school lobby whilst some were in front of the podium onstage where Gray and I were emceeing.
Here we also make cards made of art and draw things for big events and holidays.
For example when Halloween was around the corner we drew pumpkins, haunted houses, bats, witches, cats, tombstones, mummies, Frankenstein drawings, and things they draw in Mexico at the same time for a thing called Day of the Dead which is referenced by Delgado, the heroic Spanish speaking German Shepherd in Beverly Hills Chihuahua after he saves Chloe the Chihuahua from being fought by his nemesis after escaping the dog fights when they see the parade. These crafts were called sugar skulls, to look nice and to honor those who meant a lot to them. We made lots of these, and all you need to make these are round cardboard, not corrugated, pencil, Sharpies, and coloring markers. Here we draw a skull and decorate it with flowers or whatever you wish to put on it. On some I put music notes and some I put guitars on it to indicate my musical skills and perfect pitch. This place is next to a place called Piece ‘o’ Cake, a cake and cupcake store and we made one of these crafts for them, putting cupcakes on top of the skull and in the eyes. Across the street is a local coffee shop with drinks and snacks called Java Moose. We made one of these sugar skulls for them, putting coffee cups in the eyes.
After Halloween Remembrance Day was just around the corner, so we drew poppies in honor of our veterans, including my late Gramps. Here we used pencil, Sharpies to trace the pencil marks, and water color paints. Here we learned about perspective, which simply means if a poppy or item is bigger, which means the poppy in question is the closest, then the stems of the ones behind don’t show through the closest one because the stem is not usually translucent.
After Remembrance Day we were informed we, along with most businesses uptown, would participate in a gingerbread building contest, so at the moment at which I am writing this story, we built our Martello Tower out of gingerbread. We also made people out of gingerbread, sleds out of gingerbread, a bench out of pretzel sticks, Christmas trees out of ice cream cones coated with frosting and candy and some with green coconut to resemble pine trees, and I decided to make a Griswold Squirrel and a Border Collie out of gingerbread and have the person sitting on the bench with the dog next to him me holding a cup of hot apple cider as we watch the tower and people sliding down the hill on sleds and crazy carpets. I also made a Christmas wreath out of gingerbread.
