A Tale of Two Projects and One Implant!
This time last year, I was immersed in art therapy training at Tobias School of Art & Therapy in East Grinstead. Now, I’m immersed in two projects that I feel deeply passionate about, both of which are creating challenges I’m attempting to navigate.
If you’ve been reading my blog so far, you’ll know about my project to help individuals impacted by homelessness in London and the Amazon wish list and Donation page I’ve created. So far, the Amazon wish list only works for a few people in the UK, while the donation page I tested by donating to my project worked without an issue. One friend has successfully used my donation page, so I feel confident it’s an excellent alternative to the Amazon wish list.
I’ve already used the £15 in donations to purchase toiletries and dog treats from Aldi. I’m adding what I purchase to a big plastic box in my studio next to the extra backpack I’ve donated to this project. My challenges with this project are that the charity shops I’ve contacted or visited have backpacks at high prices, so I can’t afford to buy them yet unless I can get more donations. The coats there are pretty pricey, too, so I’m hoping I’ll be more proactive in finding contributions so I can purchase coats, warm clothes and backpacks in the coming weeks.
Another avenue I'm exploring is selling my artwork, with a portion of the sales earmarked for purchasing coats for those without housing. This initiative's potential impact is inspiring and motivates me to continue my efforts. Increasingly cold nights are also an excellent motivator too!
Wheat Field Print
I am pondering reprinting and selling to raise funds to buy supplies to combat homelessness. As well as other linocut prints too.
Ideally, it would be wonderful to be able to set up work as an “Art for Health & Wellbeing Facilitator,” which is my new title following my recent training. The one thing holding me back from earning an income in this way is that I’ve got to complete their Level 5 qualification, which requires me to teach three separate workshops with the same participants and document my experience before, during, and after the workshops.
Teaching isn’t new to me; I have been teaching since the late 1990s, so teaching these workshops with an art therapy theme is the easy and exciting part, in my opinion. The biggest challenge is that I need a venue to conduct these workshops because the art studio in my home is medieval, with low ceilings and up a flight of stairs and is tiny. Anyone taller than me would be in danger of unexpected head injuries from the low beams and would need to sit on the floor to fit properly. I can’t accommodate more than three people at a time in my tiny home studio, so a venue is the only other option.
Over the last few months, I’ve been emailing, calling, and visiting various venues in and around St Albans to see about renting out a space. Either these venues won’t talk to me in person to ask these “venue questions,” or they don’t respond to my emails or answer their phones. Or they tell me immediately that they can’t rent to artists. Everybody is very busy. I feel quite stuck and wonder if asking potential clients to bundle up warm and trudge off into a field or woodland for wild art and wellbeing workshops is doable. I do have public liability insurance, but just for craft fairs, so I’m not sure it covers teaching in a woodland. This is another item on my “to research” list.
I could offer these art for health and wellbeing workshops for free, which might guarantee regular attendees for three workshops. However, that would mean I’d have to hold them in my flat or outside in the countryside, neither of which seems doable currently unless the participants are short like me or willing to stand in the soggy, cold countryside.
So, I thought I could potentially offer these workshops to people I know in the US during the Christmas holidays while visiting my mother. This could solve the problem of finishing the qualification and having a head start in the coming year. Still, it wouldn’t help me earn funds to contribute towards my project to help people experiencing homelessness and deliver much-needed supplies to them on the 21st of November.
I’ve briefly pondered conducting a workshop on a train between St Albans and Brighton, with the second workshop on the beach and the third workshop on the return journey, but I think attendees, and I would be dropping from exhaustion if we tried that idea.
I’ve considered booking a big table at Megan’s in St. Albans or a pub and holding a workshop in a noisy restaurant. Still, neither place is conducive to meditation or quiet reflection when working with students, especially in art therapy, and I don’t want to make people feel obliged to buy food or drink just to sit there.
If I extend my qualification deadline for next year, then I not only put off that qualification but also any hope of earning a decent income in the near future. On the plus side, it would give me more time to find a venue willing to allow an artist into their space. It’s a thought but one I’m hoping I don’t have to resort to, as I’d like to finalise my qualification before the end of 2024.
Meanwhile, as I try to creatively find solutions to two projects that I care deeply about, I’m also immersed in Reiki training, which I think keeps me calm and focused, which I’m grateful for. I’ve been training with Chelle from Divine Reiki Studio in St Albans and have also found several books on the topic that have helped me delve deeper into the practice of self-healing using Reiki.
On Wednesday this week, I have a yearly check-up with my surgical team at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Chelsea, where I will be sharing that I still feel that my silicone implant from my mastectomy in 2021 needs to come out. It has been a few years since I decided this because they wanted to give me time to get used to the implant and recover from the chemo and surgery and then the shock from the death of my loved ones before providing a final decision.
So, I feel like this is a big week in more ways than one. I feel like I’m making a decision that’s going to change my future because I believe that agreeing to have this implant out and go flat on one side will improve my life. Silicone implants have about a twenty-year life span before they need to be taken out and replaced, and by the time the one I have is at that point, I’ll be in my late sixties, and I don’t want to have to go through significant surgery then. So, I’m making that decision for my future self this week.
Of course, I’ll have to wait to have a surgery date that hopefully won’t be until next year. I’m also hopeful that I won’t be in as much pain as the mastectomy as my nerves are all cut anyway, and I’m pretty numb on my left side, and I hope I don’t have a drain to deal with again. It seems crazy to be arranging with a surgeon to plan another surgery, which feels like another mutilation of my body. The psychological impact of cancer is still a massive part of my life. Still, the reiki certainly is helping, and the overwhelming need to help others less fortunate than myself is a constant focus, for which I’m grateful.
By this point, most blog posts are probably supposed to conclude with something insightful that somehow wraps up everything that has been shared. What I can share that I find a salve to my soul while working through these challenges are those individuals who are working alongside me to help make an impact in the lives of others.
It is those friends that I feel inspiration from and who keep me motivated to keep trying to find solutions. I’m enormously grateful for Katrina’s kindness and willingness to jump in and be just as excited as I am about helping people experiencing homelessness, buying lots of supplies at the supermarket, and sharing tips about the best charity shops to try next. I have enormous gratitude for Katrina and her unwavering dedication to helping others! I know we’ll succeed and that on the 21st of November, bringing what we’ve collected to those impacted by homelessness will be a treat. I can’t wait to see our efforts pay off. I hope I find more backpacks and winter coats before then!
I’m also extremely grateful for the passion and enthusiasm of my lovely friend Sarah Chandler, who is in her final year of studying at Tobias and is just as excited as I am about offering workshops for cancer survivors and anyone impacted by cancer. I really do think we’ll make a difference in the lives of people who have been through the cancer experience. I’ve been reaching out to different organisations that help people with cancer to see how our workshop idea can benefit them.
If I ever find a venue, I hope I’ll be able to help those who have had upsetting experiences when first learning to make art or those who just need to find an alternative way to heal using various art processes. Even if I have to teach workshops standing in the woods, at least I’ll be beginning this ongoing drive to help others in some capacity, not just as an art teacher but, at last, an “arts for health and wellbeing facilitator.”
*If you also want to help those impacted by homelessness in London, consider donating to help us purchase much-needed food, clothing, toiletries, and pet supplies. Just follow this link to donate.
**We also have an Amazon Wish List where you can purchase items for people experiencing homelessness. (This list only works for people in the UK) (You need to select ship to “Katrina Ramsay”, which will show you an abbreviated part of her address where the items will be sent.)
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Thank you for reading and subscribing, and a huge thank you to my dear friends who have already donated or purchased from my Amazon wish list! Your support of my projects fuels me daily and fills me with gratitude!
For anyone who has subscribed in the hope I’ll get my art and therapy workshops up and running, I hope you can see that I’m still trying to establish myself. I’ll let you know when I’ve found a way to begin. Sorry for the delay, and here’s to future therapeutic art workshops that don’t involve soggy, cold countryside or tiny medieval interiors!
Peace to all,
Franceska
