 Abledon Air major sponsorship was given by Green Mountain Support Services, empowering neighbors with disabilities to be home in the community. Also sponsorship was given by Washington County Mental Health Services, where hope and support come together, and Champlain Community Services of Vermont. Welcome to the tradition of Abledon Air, the one and only program that focuses on the needs, concerns, and achievements of the definitely able. I'm Lauren Seiler. I'm Aileen Seiler. And on this program today, before we mention our guests, we'd like to say we are sponsored, and thank you to our sponsors, Green Mountain Support Services, Washington County Mental Health, and Champlain Community Services. We would like to welcome our guest, Mindy Sprague, who is also a cook and an artist, and what is your name again? Rosie Ammons. Okay, I see where to put Mindy. On this topic, we will focus on art and people with special needs. Recently, Abledon Air had the opportunity to go to the Berry Opera House and look at the art exhibit that was presented by Washington County Mental Health, and many other sponsors. Let's take a look at that art exhibit. Mindy, welcome to the show. Thank you. Besides being a good cook that you are, and that type of thing, that you've been around the stove as well as the paintbrush, can you tell us a little bit about your art? Art, all the arts I did. What type of art have you done? The mask. Is this one that a real face of mine did I did? That we're going to see pieces of the video. The one that I did with a real face, that mask one I did was awesome. I like that. So, why did you do masks? Was there a reason behind it? Why did you want to do the mask instead of a regular painting? You want to add to that? What was the reason behind it? So, the art show that we are doing at the Berry Opera House right now, it's going on until the 29th of July. The original theme was a mask, to do masks. I try and introduce different types of art. Oh, you're the art teacher. Well, I'm one of them. I try and introduce a lot of different things for Mindy to try. And one day we were working with plaster and pregnaated gauze. Plaster and what? Pregnated gauze. Which is what? It's gauze that has plaster Paris inside of it. So, what you do is when you first attempt it, the subject has Vaseline put all over their face. Mindy? Yes. Or anybody who has it done. They have Vaseline put on their face so that when the gauze hardens, you can get it off without tearing their skin. So, what you do with this gauze, it's got plaster in it. You dip it in water and then you smooth it on their face. So, the contours of their face. And their face doesn't burn? Nope. Well, it's happening. Okay. Nope. That's why you have the Vaseline on it. It creates a barrier between the plaster and their face. And what I did is I put it on her face and the eyes around, left the eyes open and her nose so she could breathe. And it just molded her face. And then after like a half hour or so, you go around the edges and you lift up gently and then you can take the whole thing off. Okay. So, the mask idea was to get Mindy involved in this art project. I see you always wanted, were you always wanting to be an artist? Or, I mean, was this something new for you? Something new. Mindy has only been painting for, it'll be two years, this path next month. How large are the groups that you work with that do this type of art? I work one-on-one with Mindy. But this art exhibit has 35 different pieces in it. And everybody works all at once on stuff or individually? They work individually. Sometimes they work together. Sometimes they don't. That's basically when they're one-on-one or when they're able to come and work on their project. As you can see for this art exhibit, we have everything from painting to Mindy's mask. Was this art exhibit funded by Washington County and other? It was put on by the Learning Collaborative. The Learning Network. Well, they've changed their name to the Learning Collaborative. Was it sponsored? Do you know if it was sponsored? I mean, obviously it's at the very upper house, but has it been sponsored by other organizations besides Washington County Mental Health? As far as I know, it was just a Learning Collaborative, Learning Network that has sponsored. Is this the first art show that they've done? They have done one at the spa in Berry that was last year. They also did one at the Aldrich Library, which was downstairs. Those are the three that I know of that Mindy's had actual things in the exhibit itself. Now, in terms of the masks that Mindy has done and other people have done, is it based? Do you do expressions with the masks? So with her mask, we started with just the face itself and then decided on the color. We actually went and had the pieces donated, the wood that she used, donated from Pull & Lumber in Williamstown, which helped out a lot for her. Her mask is comprised of... Because I noticed that according to the video that we shot, she did one mask with cardboard only as a schematic or a map or something to what? The first mask has impregnated gauze. It was done on just a plastic face and that the gauze was put on that and then taken off and then she painted it. And that's what started with it. That was her prototype. And then after the prototype was done, we decided that we would go on to something bigger. More hands-on, more... The biggest one that you're going to see is... It was like pieces of CDs or discs and glass and then other things. It's actually called Shattered Self. Shattered Self. And why is that? Because of the material? No, because it was her. It was emotional. Mindy picked up the name so I don't know what it actually was, but she called it Shattered Self. She broke the CDs up by herself with a hammer and there's two discs that are plywood and then there's slats that are put on the outside that's screwed together. It has gorilla glue and paint and I think it turned out amazing. I'm a big proponent on art therapy for everybody. Explain more on that. Okay, so art therapy gives people with not only intellectual disabilities, but people who have emotional things that they do. BDSD for example? Yes, it's a good outlet to get all that stuff out that they can't do verbally. Some people can't speak or tell about the trauma they've gone through and art is a way to get it out. A lot of people think it's hocus pocus, but I'm a big proponent that I think that through music, art, and all that stuff, poetry, that is a good outlet to get emotions and things that are going on in their head out. So is this better? Do you say art therapy? Do you think this is better? They're just having regular counseling? I don't think it's better. I think it helps. It can go hand in hand. Sometimes it's harder for people to put their feelings in words and it's great to have that when you have a therapist that you trust that you can go and talk to them. But then there are people who even if they have a therapist, they need another outlet to get it out to either help monitor their emotions, not really monitor, but get their emotions out in a constructive way. Getting their emotions out in a constructive way without punching walls, without punching people. It's better to put the aggression out on a canvas than it is onto a person or an object. So they can feel the expressions. And why do you like to do it? Why do you like to paint? Guys, it's fun. It keeps me busy and it helps. And it helps and it helped me out. How? How? How does it help you? Okay, I like to focus when I do it and stuff. Do you like doing the mass more than cooking or do you like both? I like both. I like both, I do. Because you know chefs use the plate as a canvas. Art, you know, you have food photography and that type of thing, you know. So is this, I mean, did you do the art exhibit last year or this is your first time? This is, I did three. Mindy has done everything from abstract. Explain what that is. Abstract is paint, color, shape, just put on canvas. It doesn't really represent. So paint, charcoal. She hasn't worked with charcoal but other mediums. And it doesn't really represent anything. It's just, there could be shapes, and splatter is abstract. And what is that exactly? You throw paint at a canvas with like brushes and stuff like that. Or you take, I showed Mindy a technique that's called, you take a sponge and we have one canvas that is 48 by 26, I think. So it's a huge. It's huge. That whole canvas, which- Is it a huge other than this? It's big. It's taller than I am. It's almost as tall as I am. And I'm five foot something. So that whole canvas, it's a scarecrow. Mm-hmm. We did not use one single paintbrush on it. None at all. None at all. And they're just sponges. Just sponges and paper towels. And that's it. And that's it. And she has like 36 hours in that canvas. And I didn't take me long to do it. It did a lot of mixing the paints and basically what she did was take a projector and put the subject on the canvas and then did color after that. So like traced almost similar to tracing. Yeah, basically. But a lot of artists when they are doing a big subject will take a photograph of what they want. Similar, well similar to animation because when you do like, for example, I'll give you an example. Hannah Barbera or something. When they did the Flintstones, first of all, they'll paint it, but they'll put it in a cell first and do the movement or Disney example. Basically they start with the painting and then they transpose it to a cell. Exactly. And then they move the cell so that gives the object. And if you're doing a half an hour show like the Flintstones, for example, or I'll give you, there's an old animation studio that used to be, it's no longer in the existence of filmation. So people that did He-Man and She-Ra and all, it would take a team of artists just to do one movement, lifting the sword or doing something. And then putting that to a half an hour canvas, if you will. Yep. You can do it with flip books too. Yeah. Oh, flip it and you see it, yeah. Yeah, and you see it move. Yeah. So basically, yes, she projected it onto the canvas and outlined it. And then after that, after it was outlined, then she went through and did the color. So basically what the outline does is just put the subject on the canvas and then you go from there. You don't see the outlines after the canvas is painted. It's all done in everything. So we did sponges, right? Sponges we did. What else do we do? We did paper towels. We did, I know those still we did. Mm-hmm. Did what, I'm sorry? We did sponges. Mm-hmm. We did paper towels. And then we had some that were different shapes. Different kind of shapes, yeah. Like circled, or around. Yeah, we used these sponges. And then like cosmetic sponges. Yeah, those, yeah. And basically that's, that's it. And then blended and all that stuff. It's an amazing piece if you ever get a chance to see it. Mm-hmm. Well, I mean, her, her art is in, that piece isn't in there. Oh, the art with the sponges isn't in there. There's actually a couple pieces that are. The landscape, which is a really big one when you go in there. It looks like the mountains with the, like a little brook running through the stones at the bottom. That was all done with sponges and no paintbrushes. There's also reflections, which is in there. The only paintbrush that was used was to put the white birches. I know there was somebody that did a bird or birds of some sort. On the window. Yes, was that done? Mindy and I did that. It took us about a month to do that one. Yeah, we did. We repurposed, what, what did we use to repurpose? Repurpose? Yeah. What did we put it on? We put it on a, like a glass window. A used glass window. Yes, an old barn window. An old farmhouse window. Like a big window. And she's actually donating that to the Green Mountain Self-Advocate Gala this fall. That's going to be the silent auction. And that was done in several different stages also. Without breaking, trying to, without breaking the glass. Yes. And because there's, there. Is it more like stained glass? No, it's not. This is just regular glass with acrylic paint on it. We had to go through and get some of the old paint off it and put Modge Podge on it so that it made. What is that? Modge Podge is like a glue. And you put it on there, it creates a barrier between, like there was an old, it's an old window from an old farmhouse. So it has like lead paint. So you don't want that to be exposed to anybody. So you had to cover it up to give it some of the integrity that it still has, but also make it safe for everybody else. So basically she went through and did the whole frame with that. And then we went in and put the birds on it one step at a time. So there's layers of paint. And then at the end, she Modge Podge the back of it so that the paint won't flick off. So how long does it normally take a person to do a piece of art? Depends. It varies. Some people are very focused and they can get it done like in a few hours. So you give them like an art class on? Well I don't give an art class to everybody else. I have, I've gone through school and I've had some classes and I love art and I figured I would impart that on Mindy. The ones that gave the art classes at the Learn Collaborative actually do the classes. But Mindy and I work together. So I'm not, I'm not saying. So are they trained artists or they just do the art or? They're trained. I don't know their education altogether, but they've done it a long time. Is there going to be more art exhibits for Washington County or? Oh I'm sure there probably will be. I don't know exactly when. I don't know where. We just figure that out when they tell us. Oh okay. So we only have a couple minutes left. The art exhibit is going on, is finishing up this week. Yeah, Monday is the last day. Monday is the last day. How long has it been, it's been a month? It's been since June 27th, I think. June 27th, June 28th or June something or other. Well we would like to thank you for joining us on this, this, you know, Fable de la Nera. Anything you want to say about, um, any more things you want to say about art and people with disabilities? I think everybody has a talent and they just have to be given some time and energy and the equipment to do it. Okay, um, well we would like to thank you for joining us on this edition of Fable de la Nera. Before we end, we'd like to say that our program, the Fable de la Nera, is brought to you in sponsorship by Washington County Mental Health, Green Mountain Support Services, and Champlain Community Services. Again, if you would like to find out more about Washington County Services, where can they turn? What's the website? I think it's Washington, WCMHS.org. Okay, so it's www, if you want to find out more about Washington County and its services, you can go to www, WCMHS.org. And if you want to find out more about Fable de la Nera and this program, you can, um, go to www.OrcaMedia, that's O-R-C-A-W-W-D-O-R-C-A media.net. This puts an end to this edition of Fable de la Nera. I'm Lauren Seiler. I'm Lauren Seiler. See you next time. Fable de la Nera, major sponsorship was given by Green Mountain Support Services, empowering neighbors with disabilities to be home in the community. Also sponsorship was given by Washington County Mental Health Services, where hope and support come together, and Champlain Community Services of Vermont.