April
April
is a budding outsider artist who has enthusiastically attended WEAVE art workshops
since the program's inception. The workshops offer her a chance to develop
her artistic and critical skills as she tries her hand at the different mediums
demonstrated in the classes. April enjoys lino cuts and print-making, but
her favoured form of expression is the political cartoon, which she draws
in pencil on small pieces of white paper. Her cartoons, some humourous, some
subversive, were recently on display in Ottawa.
April credits WEAVE in helping her realize that she has a future to build. April is blunt about the effects of the workshops on her progress, emphasizing the redemptive power of art: she repeatedly states that "Art saves lives." April explains that in her case, the workshops helped regulate her schedule and gave her a chance to structure her week. They also offered her something to do with her mind. Not just a safe haven from the Downtown Eastside streets, but a chance to engage. "It helped me to think, to find myself again."
Appreciative of the opportunity to create and think in a safe place, April is now turning her energies to helping the other women who come to the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre find refuge in WEAVE art projects. She talks about encouraging her friend Heather, who is pregnant and struggling with addiction, to engage in the workshops, to channel her energy and emotions through art. "It's a struggle," April says. "But I'm living proof. Art can save lives."
