“I’m so ready to make a mess!” That’s the exclamation heard as students in Ms. Daria Sur’s Art and Resilience headed outside to make their mark and contribution to Unbound—an upcoming art exhibit in Sonoma County.
The class is painting a 9-foot paper mache heart for a project in partnership with Life On Earth Art, a new arts non-profit based in Petaluma. Its mission is to forge healing and community resilience through artmaking, and the organization brings together a powerful community of artists, makers, and activists to create uplifting public art experiences and rituals in service to social justice.
Unbound invites the public to create healing art in support of patients at Department of State Hospitals-Napa and mental health awareness. Volunteers work at the Life On Earth Art studio in Downtown Petaluma in conjunction with DSH-Napa’s rehabilitation therapy department to co-create a 60-foot sculpture. Hundreds of paper mâché winged hearts fly free of an antique cage, growing in size and color from nine inches to nine feet long.
This project was introduced by Haley Chimienti ’17, Gallery & Art Production Manager at Life on Earth. “I recognize the power that Unbound holds within the Sonoma County community, and I just knew that this project would resonate in the classroom and the hearts of my Alma Mater,” she said.
For the last few weeks of March, the art class has been planning and then executing their vision for the heart. In a combination of splatter and finger painting, students worked together bringing to life this colorful and fun project.
For more information on the Unbound exhibit or Life on Earth, visit their website.