​"Re-building Blocks"
Creative Solutions
‘Rebuilding Blocks’ Heart Share St. Vincent’s Services, Surfside Cornerstone community center, Coney Island
Art Therapy community mural program, 2021

Rebuilding Blocks was created as a group art therapy directive with youth participants from Heart Share St. Vincent’s Creative Solutions program, located at the NYCHA housing Surfside Cornerstone community center in Coney Island. Groups were held weekly on Saturdays over the course of 9 weeks. The design was conceived through group planning sessions wherein I provided pre-cut building blocks out of construction paper and asked participants to construct a safe space on the wall, while tying in symbols specific to their environment. Once approved by building stakeholders, participants helped to prime the wall and outline the composition. I held subsequent workshops to teach about color mixing, masking, and blocking in color. We painted it in over the course of several weeks. Because the group was young, I made sure to fill in the top quadrant independently, and helped to tape edges and refine elements.