Welcome to My Blog - Art as My Therapy

Greetings and welcome to the Pages from My Sketchbook. For those who don’t know me, my name is Caryn.  I have a passion for art and an interest in medicine and one day I hope to combine the two and become an art therapist. I am an artist NOT an art therapist YET! 

Art for me has always been an outlet. Some people eat, some people shop, some people make art. That’s me. I like drawing, painting, or just creating something. Growing up it was a way to pass time when I was sick, which if you ask my mother it was a lot, but really not. There was a time when I didn’t do any art or drawing. Then Photoshop came along and somehow I lost some skills. Picking up a pencil again wasn’t like riding a bike. I literally lost perspective and had to relearn a few skills that I had forgotten. So with encouragement from my husband, I picked up my pencil and sketchbook and started copying some drawings and took a watercolor class. Then the summer of 2009, I started designing greeting cards at Greeting Card Universe, www.greetingcarduniverse.com/kabras. Last January 1^st one of my cards was elected by GCU as Design of the Day. That was pretty cool.

After almost 20 years in the medical field and experiencing burn out, I seized the opportunity to explore the art world and make the career change. So back to school it was and back to school it is this coming semester. My plan is to finish my degree in graphic design and work as a graphic designer to pay for the rest of my education, which is gonna be a lot but who knows where the journey will take me.

If there is one thing I have learned thus far, art heals. There is an emotional healing that takes place when we are creating. I truly believe that when we are healthy psychologically, we are healthy physically and when we are healthy physically we are healthy psychologically. We were created to create, to express ourselves be it through drawing, painting, music, cooking, baking, sewing, acting, writing, fashion; just about anything that requires us to use our imagination and be creative.

 I’ll be posting some of my drawings and sketches and encourage each of you to do the same. I have come across some really cool creative exercises and projects along the way that I hope you will fun with too.  Oh and books… got some fun books to share and make.

So grab your pencil and sketch book…ready, set, GO!!!