Way Station clients thrive using art as healing agents

Thursday, Jan. 26, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Tom Fedor⁄The Gazette Way Station executive director Scott Rose (center) stands with client artists Donna Burns (left) a sculptor who works with polymer clay, and Michael Marra, a wood worker. The artists’ work will be part of a March art auction to benefit the nonprofit organization which offers mental health services to children and adults.

Art auction * 5:30 p.m. preview; 7 p.m. auction, March 10, at Dutch’s Daughter restaurant, Frederick * Tickets are $20 for one, $30 for two. To order, call 301-663-1139 or e-mail info@frederickbar. org. Proceeds benefit Way Station.

Then the crash would come.

‘‘The higher you are in the manic phase, the worse the crash is – I became extremely depressed and suicidal,” D.B. said.

Her illness was diagnosed in the early 1990s, she said, when she was in her late 40s. Until then, she led a normal life — held a high-stress job as a computer sales person and raised a family — though she did experience bouts of depression.

And, she continued to create art. But, the illness, she said, thwarted her ability to be consistently good, consistently creative, consistently enthused.

D.B., now on disability, has been a Way Station client for the past three years. The nonprofit organization offers mental health services to both children and adults.

Medication and talk therapy have helped tame D.B.’s illness, though she still struggles with debilitating depression at times.

Her treatment also gives her more freedom from her illness to work on her polymer clay sculptures, impressive figurines of women, both old and young. A three-dimensional framed piece of a striking African-American woman is a featured door prize at an art auction in March, sponsored by the Bar Association of Frederick County. Proceeds from the annual event will go to the Way Station.

The theme of D.B.’s artwork is women and childbirth. She was active in childbirth movements in the past, a member of La Leche League, and gave birth to her third child at home.

Mixing colors and letting the figures emerge from a block of clay is another form of therapy for her, she said.

‘‘The process of doing art allows me to stay outside my own problems and find peace. I find serenity and a space away from my depression,” she said.

For a number of years, the Way Station had a formal art program with a trained art therapist. Today, the organization offers a creative art group where clients can work on projects together.

‘‘Art, in its various forms, helps most all people transcend the drudgery of everyday life,” Scott Rose, executive director of the Way Station, said. ‘‘For people suffering from mental illness, it can help them keep their heads above the pain.”

For woodworking artist Michael Marra, another Way Station client, the idea of earning a living by following his bliss was once merely a dream. Now, armed with a grant from the state’s Department of Rehabilitative Services, the 41-year-old can buy tools and materials to turn pieces of wood into works of art — and profit. His creativity knows no bounds. Marra has designed and built furniture and created such custom pieces as a family crest and a dove-shaped jewelry box.

He is creating a jewelry box in the shape of the City of Frederick’s spires for the charity art auction in March. Like D.B.’s work, Marra’s creation is a door prize.

Marra’s mental illness, schizophrenic-affective disorder, bipolar disorder and social anxiety disorder, first manifested at 17. It took several years for him to be properly diagnosed. In the meantime, he had mental breakdowns, was homeless for several months, and wound up checking into a state mental health institution.

He picked up his love of woodworking in junior high school. His best friend, Marra said, was a fellow woodshop fanatic. He died in a go-cart accident in junior high.

‘‘I think about him a lot when I do woodworking,” Marra said.

Marra feels productive when he works with wood. He developed his skills through a program in Prince George’s County and took a job with a homebuilder in Frederick County.

His social anxiety disorder made the job difficult, but Marra saw it through. He wants to earn his own way and not be dependent on ‘‘taxpayer money,” he said.

‘‘It is very important to me to support myself financially and not be dependent on a disability check. I really feel bad about other people going to work so I can pay my rent and buy food,” he said.

Part of the stigma associated with mental illness, Rose said, is that some believe it is not a real illness, that people are choosing to live that way.

‘‘They say, why don’t they just buck up and get a job?” he said. ‘‘But, it can be incredibly terrifying and debilitating [to live with mental illness.] It is heroic how these people can move through life and strive to be productive and integrate themselves into the community.”

The Way Station has a 24-hour crisis line: 301-624-4682. For more information about the programs offered by the Way Station, call 301-662-0099.