Coping with COVID-19: Help create a colourful (and virtual) community canvas

As more local residents self-isolate due to the COVID-19 pandemic, one local small business is offering a way for members of the community to collaborate and also express some of the uncertainty and anxiety they may be feeling.

“As an art and photo therapist, I am always looking for creative ways to support individual and community well-being,” says Kelly Gauthier of Picture Yourself Well. “With the COVID-19 pandemic upon us and the emotions that are surfacing because of it, I feel it’s extremely important for our community members to have a place to put their feelings so they are not left sitting with or holding onto them. When we carry unresolved feelings and emotions around with us we open ourselves up for illness and mental health concerns.”

Gauthier created the COVID-19 Community Colour Canvas Collaboration Project “because I believe when we can openly share our confusion, anger, chaos, fear, and anxiety together as a whole, as a community, we can build a supportive strength that needs no words. So if you are sitting with or holding onto negative feelings or emotions around the Coronavirus then this is a great opportunity for you to share and release them while helping to support and heal yourself and your fellow community members.”

Here’s how it works:

1. Choose one colour that represents how your are feeling about the Novel Coronavirus. It can be in any medium—paint, coloured pencils, crayons, etc.
2. Use that one colour, and only that colour, to create a drawing, painting, or collage that depicts how you’re feeling about it. I can be simple or elaborate.
3. Take a photo of your creation and email it to Gauthier at [email protected] with the subject line “Colour Me Well” before mid-April. Gauthier asks for just one submission per person but multiple creations can be included in one photo.

Gauthier will combine the submissions into a community collaborative canvas “that will be hung as a reminder to all that community support creates community wellness, and is the greatest defence against community illness. I thank you in advance for your contributions and for being instrumental in supporting your own mental health as well as your community’s. Let the colouring begin!”

What are you doing to pass the time if you are self-isolating? Tell us about it in the comments.

For ongoing updates about the virus in the Huntsville area, check here regularly: How COVID-19 is impacting the Huntsville area: cases, cancellations, news, and commentary

Don’t miss out on Doppler!

Sign up here to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
Local news in your inbox three times per week!