On Wednesday, we had our second-to-last session for the Caretakers’ Art Group. This session began the process of synthesizing the topics we have discussed in the previous sessions.  We began by thinking back on the art activities we had done and reflecting on the themes we had discussed: self- exploration with the symbolic self-portraits, self-care practices with our self-care zines, and boundaries with our boundary maps.

Next, I had the group trace their hands on a piece of large paper. On one hand, we wrote aspects of caretaking that we want to “hold on to”, on the other hand we wrote aspects of caretaking we want to “let go of”. On the holding-on-to hand, members wrote things like kindness, support, self-care, positivity, friendship, and service. On the letting-go-of hand, they wrote things like rigidity, self-doubt, feeling devalued, drama, and negativity. This activity sparked a good conversation about what healthy caretaking looks like and what unhealthy caretaking can feel like.

After members finished their hand tracings, we cut out our hands and taped them onto a large tree mural, which I had made while members were finishing their hands. We put the holding-on-to hands on the tree’s branches to act as its leaves and taped the letting-go-of hands on the ground by the trunk to depict fallen leaves. We took a few moments to reflect on seeing our leaves assembled in this way. Pointing out words that were repeated in different leaves/hands, members then identified words that they would like to hold on to or let go of. All in all the session was successful.

Next week, we will be closing out the group with another art piece and meaningful reflection time. I’m excited to review our experience with you all here next week!

— Alex Shoemaker