Soul Art

As I have previously mentioned (I think), we now hold regular meetings on Fridays in which we discuss life issues and how the Center is running. Some of the topics have included Leonardo's Vitruvian Man, hydrogen bonding and The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky. I look forward to other interesting discussions in the future. The plan for our next meeting is to do art therapy through the Health Through Art Project. I think it is a great idea, something that the guys could really get into and something in which I would also like to participate (even though my art skills are minimal at most).

But as you have probably guessed we do not have art supplies readily available at St. Vincent de Paul (actually you would think that we would have this stuff donated, but I guess not). This is a problem. In order for our guys to enter the peaceful art contest they need items that are used in artwork (this is really rocket science), such as medium to heavy weight paper, foam board, markers, acrylic paints, colored pencils and things of that nature. Now, the reason I am writing this blog is to talk about a small detail in this whole story. I did not know what I was going to do to get supplies. It turns out that it really does not take much: call art supplies stores, tell them you work for a non-profit organization and ask for donations of damaged items. They are more than willing to help, most likely because it is a tax write-off.

The point of this blog, the little detail I want to talk about, is that of all things today setting up this relationship withthe art stores is what really made me happy. I found myself smiling as I got off the phone, smiling as I drove to speak with the people who run the stores. And I don't really know why it touched me so much.