Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror" resonates out of an open laptop at Ray Perrault Park in North Vancouver.
The King of Pop is preferred listening for Jeff Keast when he's making art. Hunkered down at a collapsible table near the southeast corner of Moody Avenue and East 15th Street, Keast bobs his head along to the music as he squeezes colourful acrylic paints onto a makeshift palette. Across from him, Mary McLaughlin is concentrating on her own canvas. The two chatter away as they paint, drawing still-life inspiration from a bunch of bananas and a vase of flowers set out between them.
Every rain-free Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon throughout the summer, this grassy spot has been the site of a drop-in outdoor art group for people with developmental disabilities. Abled-Art in the Park, as the program is called, is the brainchild of 24-year-old Lynn Valley resident Emily Macdonald. After running a vocationalfocused day program for adults, acting as a respite contractor and working in the school system with children, she saw a need for a program that would provide an opportunity for participants to express themselves, engage with each another and wind down at the end of the day.
"It's a way to sit and relax and focus on something that's a little bit slower paced where people are able to use creativity and socialize as well," Macdonald says. "I think it's also a really good opportunity for selfdiscovery for these guys as well, and to gain some skills."
Today's Abled-Art participants all have Down syndrome, but the group welcomes those with all types of developmental disabilities. During each session, Macdonald offers project ideas and technique tips - colour mixing and creating perspective, for example - but for the most part she leaves things up to the artists.
"That's nice Mary. Which flower is that?" Macdonald comments as she makes her rounds. "What shape is an apple?" she asks Keast, who has decided to venture beyond the bananas and paint fruit from memory.
Macdonald has a diploma in classroom and community support from Douglas College and is working on a degree in community rehabilitation and disability studies online through the University of Calgary. She has worked at North Shore Disability Resource Centre and North Shore ConneXions Society, both of which offer organized art activities for people with special needs through their various programs.
Kathy Nyoni manages the disability resource centre's STAGE (Supportive Transition Adult Group Education) program, designed for young adults with disabilities who want to improve academic, work and life skills after high school. The weekly schedule features a number of art-based activities - from dance and music, to photography and textiles - all with an emphasis on developing employment skills.
"We find that it's good to have balance between being active out in the community doing their thing, and having some more creative time where they can sit down, they can chit chat with each other, more free," Nyoni says, "but it's also important to try to understand what their skills really are and try to develop some employment skills out of those. We are trying to think outside of the box. You know, you see a lot of people with special needs doing the same kind of work and we're trying to just develop new things that they could be doing. So we try it out with the art and it's been working."
Participants, who must apply to STAGE through Community Living B.C., are currently building birdhouses from scratch. After cutting the wood, assembling the pieces and decorating the walls with photographs taken around the community, Nyoni says the plan is to sell the birdhouses with the hope of making the project selfsustainable.
Another favourite activity among STAGE participants is producing and filming a regular news show. It's a creative project that Nyoni says encourages sharing and communication.
"We find that the art is allowing that, that social opportunity to be typical, to be doing what other people are doing, and they love it, they absolutely love it."
Beyond a leisure activity and skills-building exercise, art is also used as a therapy tool to help many populations, including special needs. North Vancouver resident Carolyn Simpson is a professional art therapist with Fraser Health Authority's Developmental Disabilities Mental Health Services. She works with clients one-on-one for a series of 12 sessions, during which they use art to express fears, release anxieties and frustrations, and tap into their creative selves.
"Art is a window to feelings and thoughts not usually accessible through language," she says. "With the art therapy, we see it as an opportunity to express oneself imaginatively and spontaneously, and so with support we can facilitate new understandings and insights."
Simpson does a variety of activities with her clients: painting, drawing, sculpting, sewing - even doll-making and maskmaking. And she's always open to suggestions. She recalls one man with autism who, for several sessions, wanted only to trace pictures of cars and trains. Finally, he expressed an interest in woodworking so Simpson jumped at the chance to mix things up and helped him build a large shield.
"This was such an important piece for him on so many different levels. He was bullied throughout his school life and so he carried that with him through adulthood, so symbolically the shield was huge, it was so important," she says. "He would talk about it as well with a sense of pride once he had it complete."
Art can be an effective therapy option for nonverbal people who can't participate in talk-based methods, Simpson says. And for those who do speak, art may lessen the intimidation factor that comes with some forms of therapy.
"There's a client, there's a therapist, and then there's the art," Simpson says.
"We can use that (art) as a vehicle to access their internal landscape."
In her role as art therapist, Simpson records her clients' progress, offers support during times of creative block and interprets symbolism in finished artworks. But she says making art itself, even without a professional art therapist present, is still a healing activity.
"I do believe that the making of art by its very nature is healing. It can reduce stress, it can expand creativity and it motivates growth."
At Ray Perrault Park, a latecomer arrives for the plein-air painting session. Macdonald's older sister Cait, who was born with Down syndrome, pulls up to the art table in her wheelchair with the help of a care aide.
"She's more profoundly disabled than a lot of the people that do come, so she does what she can," Macdonald says. "Mostly it's just for the enjoyment of being social and being outdoors."
Macdonald credits Cait as her inspiration for choosing the career path she has. She leans over her big sister, helps her grasp a paintbrush and together they push pink and purple paint around a piece of paper. Only as an adult has Macdonald reflected back and realized that she grew up in a very different environment than her peers.
"There were four kids in the family," she says, Cait being the eldest. "Cait had a lot of health problems growing up, so when I was little sometimes I would wake up in the morning and my grandma or another family member would be there because Cait would be in the hospital," Macdonald recalls. "There were a lot of hospital trips."
Just two years apart, the sisters have always shared a tight bond (as well as the same fiery red hair.) Both of them attended St. Thomas Aquinas school. "... she doesn't speak much, she doesn't have much language at all," Macdonald says of her sister, "... but (we) have a connection where it's not necessary."
As the art group paints and chitchats under the dappled shade of a tree, Macdonald notices the contentment Cait is expressing in her face and through her mannerisms.
"It doesn't matter that she doesn't have the language," Macdonald says. "We know when she's happy."
Abled-Art in the Park runs for one more week. There is a $45 drop-in fee to cover art supplies and respite services. For more information, visit facebook. com/abledart.
