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by Tracy Weitkamp

Hello Make Studio enthusiasts! I am the new-ish art therapy intern at Make Studio. I say new-ish because really I have been here since January and yet I’ve only been here regularly on Saturdays, so it still feels pretty new. Toward the start of my internship, though, I got to experience some events fairly quickly – an engaging mask-making workshop that brought community members and Make Studio artists together, two transitional youth workshops, Make Studio’s 7^th anniversary exhibition opening, in addition to spending time with Saturday artists as they create.

Seeing as I am still new-ish and am planning to intern here this year, I’ll introduce myself. I’m a graduate student in the Masters of Arts in Art Therapy (MAAT) program through Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Indiana (more on how that works, later). I previously completed a practicum in a partial hospitalization setting for children and adolescents, and was a hospital employee in a community psychiatry department. Make Studio is a welcome change of pace!

So, as I mentioned, I am a graduate student in an art therapy program that is located in Indiana. The program is a hybrid/low residency program where my classmates and I fly out to Indiana three times per year for an introduction to each semester, and then virtually complete the remainder of each semester at home. I am eternally grateful that I found such a program! This is my last year and I graduate in December – again, eternally grateful! I am a resident of Columbia, MD and have found myself attached to Baltimore for some time through work and various life events.

As far as my non-school/interning life, I am a supervisor for a team at an online public education company (yes, it seems I have quite a bit of exposure to the virtual side of life), and while it is a desk job and my ultimate dreams lie in the art therapy field, I actually quite enjoy it.

I am somewhat all over the place with my own art. Aside from a few introductory courses after graduating from Towson with a BS in Family Studies, I have very little formal art training yet I absolutely love to create. I give credit to my Masters program for fostering this in me. I dabble in various media (pencil, acrylic, minimal digital work, watercolor, ink, etc.). However, I have recently become very excited and passionate about watercolor.

As an intern here, I am very excited for what the future holds. I have so far thoroughly enjoyed seeing the various styles of each artist. As I continue my internship, I am eager to make connections from this mostly non-therapeutic setting to the art therapy field, breaking out of my clinical comfort zone. The process of creating art is not only healing in my opinion and experience, but also empowering. It serves as a means to bring communities together and simply express beauty. Thank you Make Studio community for your welcoming these past couple of months and I look forward to seeing/talking to/working with you throughout this year!

For the last couple weeks at Make Studio, artists have been working on PowerPoint presentations to get ready for (Power)Pointy: An Evening of Artful Powerpoint Presentations on Friday, April 7^th from 6:30-8:30pm at Make Studio’s Showroom Gallery as part of Hampden’s First Fridays.

Dasha discusses hers here!

“I mostly made PowerPoints for school before. They were more informational. This new one is more fun. While in school, I worked on ones by myself and in groups. I have enjoyed making PowerPoints with animations before. I haven’t made a PowerPoint since I’ve been out of school. School was sort of my inspiration for this PowerPoint. I reflected on four significant parts of my school years. I had a pretty sweet four years in high school. Middle school was pretty great too. My hair changed a lot during those days.”

“I am working on this new PowerPoint in a new way. I drew images for pictures on the slides. I feel I have more control in creating the image by drawing it. I’ve been having lots of fun working with the animation tools, sounds, and clip art! My favorite part so far has been adding pictures.

 “I know a big part of the PowerPoint is presenting it. I wrote out what I want to say, but I think I will just wing it. I know the stories I am going to tell. I may practice…but I probably don’t need to.

 “Making this PowerPoint made me think about how I used to play the trombone. I think I want to play the trombone again! I am excited about the PowerPoint event!”

Come see Dasha’s final product, as well as several of our artists’, at this Friday’s event!

I wanted to share something that’s been on my mind for quite a while.

When I was in my twenties I saw a lot of people in their thirties dissing people my age, telling them ‘you’ll grow out of it, too, and be in khakis and business suits and never want to wear black again, you Goth’ and they called me horrible names.  But, I didn’t let that stop me.  I decided to be more and more Goth and experiment with more styles.  I went through a lot of crazy styles.  That’s what you do.  I even tried Dark Dicora and Dark Fairy Kay and Creepy Cute.  I loved experimenting with different types of makeup looks and outfits, jumping around and pretending I was a magical girl, an eternal one that lasts forever. But nothing lasts forever.

But, who you ARE does last forever! I mean you may not be able to dress like you did five years ago or three years ago, but you’re still YOU!  And now that I’m about to turn thirty, the big Three Oh, I was a little scared that my Goth style would be destroyed by wrinkles and eye shape change and whatever.  But that hasn’t changed me at all.  I am only about to be thirty.  That’s not that too bad.  It gets worse when you get past thirties, then things start to really break down.  Yes, I am older, but I’m not ancient!  I still have friends who like me for who I am.  And some wise person said to me, there are people out there who act like they’re teenagers and then there are people out there who act like they’re sixty!  But, you know,  I am not going be that cranky old spinster.  Rather than being that cranky old spinster I’ve decided to be like the wise old witch like you see in those movies-  the old wise woman who has all the at home remedies who says: ‘this is what you need, try this, don’t try stuff that has chemicals in it. It’ll ruin your body.’

I’ve also decided to be a little guide to the younger cosplayers because, like it or not, I am still an anime fan.  Maybe Lolita is no longer for me but there are plenty of other outfits I can wear.  I’ve also decided to hang out at Club 1111 once in awhile.  It’s an amazing club and it was fun and, get this, Nerds, they even had “Underworld” on one of the big screens!  How did they know I love vampires! Being a Goth does not mean being young and beautiful and Gothy- it’s deep inside you.  And that will never change. Be who you are no matter what your age- stay true to you!

As this past year was drawing to a close, artist Tyrone wanted to share his reflections on his 2016 and New Year’s resolutions including from his fellow artists (following a tradition started in the studio last year).

Tyrone felt that 2016 started off strongly when he made a multimedia Inspector Gadget shadowbox-style piece for Make Studio’s 6th anniversary show. He carefully incorporated drawn and painted characters and 3-D woodcut gears.

Following David Bowie’s death, Tyrone began work on multiple tributes. He researched Bowie’s life and varied fashion styles, bringing books and magazines into the studio to share and playing Bowie music videos for others.

Wanting to share his love of this celebrity with others, he completed two tributes focused on his style evolution, one was an ode to Black Star, and another combined Bowie and Lady Gaga. Pieces were shown at Artscape, The Charmery, Bazaart, and Make Studio’s Holiday Thing. 

Later, in honor of other celebrities’ passings, Tyrone created a tribute to Prince for Make Studio’s Lantern Parade float, is currently working on a larger Prince tribute, and completed tributes for Christina Grimmie and Phife Dawg.

Tyrone felt that 2016 was a big year for him; he turned 31 and “learned how to handle things responsibly as an adult”, reflecting a lot on the idea of perfection as he advances his art to a new level. As he heads into 2017, Tyrone resolves to keep a positive view of the world as “there may be hard times ahead” and cares about “doing what is right for yourself” and still remaining open to people. At Make Studio, Tyrone has a lot of ideas for projects he wants to work on like a Die Hard poster and a VR Troopers piece.

Several other Make Studio artists wished to share their New Year’s resolutions, too:

 Jules: I’d like to read more.

Caroline: Not have anymore bad behavior.

Gary: I don’t want to change, but maybe I’ll read more.

Dasha: Drink less soda.

Aimee: Be more artsy.

And lastly from Tyrone: Godspeed, Starman and goodbye 2016!

(Please consider helping Make Studio to keep our community growing in 2017; find out more and how to help here.)