Art is beautiful, regardless of what it represents because it is an outlet to enable you to express yourself and your emotions. Art allows you to communicate how you are feeling in a way that words alone can’t capture.

The NIDAS art exhibition is (date to be confirmed) is the ideal place for individuals affected by domestic abuse to convey their story and to display how they are feeling to help with their recovery journey as well as encouraging others to seek support.

To enable individuals to meet with Hatty Pocock, Lead Art Therapist at NIDAS, create their own artwork to submit to the exhibition using a variety of art materials available, and benefit from Hatty’s assistance.

Whether you’re a budding artist or you simply want to try your hand at creating something – clay sculpture, painting, poem, story, animation, music, or film – Hatty has put together some tips for submitting artwork to the exhibition to help:

• Produce artwork in the comfort of your own home – get yourself relaxed and comfortable to create something that has meaning to you.
• Do some warmup exercises before making your artwork to get yourself into the zone and loosen up. Some useful exercises could be:
  • Put pencil to paper and draw like a child again
  • Draw with your eyes closed
  • Draw with the wrong hand
  • Draw objects in the room using a continuous line
  • Draw a squiggle and then turn it into something else
• Already created artwork? Have you already produced some artwork that you would like to include in the exhibition? Whether it was created yesterday or a few years ago, the exhibition is for you to display your art.
• Do you have an idea and want to get involved, but not sure how to execute it? The NIDAS art team can help you to get your idea across and support you to think of creative ways to display your artwork at the workshops.
• Express yourself through mark making. You could create an abstract image that provokes different feelings having been affected by domestic abuse. Can you think about how different colours might portray different emotions for you?
• Have fun and get creative!

Hatty says:

“Create artwork that means something to you. It doesn’t have to be perfect; this is your opportunity to express yourself in whatever form feels right for you. Artwork can be anything from a simple line drawing, a photograph, a poem you have written, a painting, sculptures using recycled materials, spoken work recorded on your phone, or a short story – anything is art when you create it with your heart.”