To make a donation or to volunteer, contact Brushes with Life at stepart@med.unc.edu. Patient artists set their own prices and receive 100% of the sale price. To purchase artwork, call 919.966.8990. When calling, please have the names of the artist(s) and piece(s) you are interested in buying.
The Center is proud to announce a new line of notecards featuring works by four of our artists: Sunflowers by Philip Brubaker, Swim A Little by Colette Corr, Ad Lib Monet by Michael Dunne, and Toucan by Bill Wyatt (see images below). The cards are 4.25" x 5.5" and are blank inside. All proceeds from sales of the cards go directly to support the gallery. Cards may be purchased for $3.00 apiece or a set of four different images for $10.00 by contacting Janice Linn via email at jlinn@med.unc.edu or by phone at (919) 966-8990.
Black Eyed Susans by Philip Brubaker
Swim A Little by Colette Cor
Toucan by Bill Wyatt
Ad Lib Monet by Michael Dunne
Supporting Recovery. Challenging Stigma.
With treatment,
what was once a disordered place has become a place of calm. With art, what was closed off gives the promise of hope.
Brushes with Life is a creative arts program for people in treatment OASIS and STEP; members of Club Nova, a local clubhouse for persons with mental illness; and other select community programs in the Chapel Hill area.
Through the creation of visual art, poetry, film, and music, participants find healing and move toward recovery. By connecting with the larger community around their work, they promote a broader understanding of the human side of mental illness.
Artists select a wide range of media to convey their ideas and feelings. They further their talents by participating in program-sponsored art classes. They have opportunities to share their work in the Brushes with Life gallery and in traveling exhibitions.
Gallery organizers include hospital staff, patient artists, family members, community volunteers, and mental health professionals.
Brushes with Life started in 2000 and ever since the program has been supporting recovery from mental illness and challenging the stigma associated with these conditions. To view an interactive timeline highlighting major milestones, click here.
In 2009, Brushes with Life (video trailer below), received an honorable mention from the SAMHSA Voice Awards. The documentary, produced by Brushes with Life artist and videographer Philip Brubaker, featured eight fellow artists and the challenges they face striving for creative recognition in a society that often stigmatizes and/or dismisses people with mental illness.
Hello. I am Robert Kwami Jackson. I grew up in Raleigh, NC. My hands were (severely) burned at the age of three. I became interested in art by copying pictures out of magazines at the kitchen table at my grandmother's house after school.
I was about seven or eight when I saw a painting by Pablo Picasso called "Guernica." At that exact moment I said to myself, "I can do that." Whether I could or couldn't I believed that I could and, from that moment on, I became an artist.
From childhood to early adolescence I did nothing but sketches; art with no color, no painting, not even shading with pencils. This was not my intention but I do believe this established my art style. That later transformed over into my paintings.
At age nineteen, I found myself studying commercial art. I didn't finish school but I did learn how to paint, which I have been doing for sixteen years. I don't know it all but I know enough to get by. I'm still learning, which makes it exciting. Experiences and life play a major part in it as well as spirituality, and keeping a peaceful mind.
Brushes with Life has been the first gallery to show my body of work. Although I'm getting older, my dream is to become a teacher of art and a famous artist.
(various artists)
Research shows that at some point during the course of any illness, physical as well as mental, most people go off their medicines. There are many reasons a person may stop taking their medication, including: 1) The drug has stopped the symptoms. 2) They don't want to believe that they are chronically ill and need medicine. 3) The medicine has powerful, negative side effects such as sedation, agitation, constipation, weight-gain, and worse. 4) They can't afford a particular medication.
Founded in January 2009, the Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health is part of the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Addressing quality of care and workforce development issues in North Carolina's mental health system, the Center and its clinical programs are supported by a three-year grant from The Duke Endowment, as well as Cross Area Services Program (CASP)
funds. The program operates in conjunction with multiple university, state, and community-based partners.
© 2010 UNC CMH
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