ART THERAPY 101

Looking for a different way to nurture your mental health and well-being? Try Art Therapy 101 with DSbyOlga.

Olga’s vision for Art Therapy 101 is to share her story and lived experiences in order to impact her local and global communities in positive ways while teaching and promoting the Arts. Olga has experienced personal hardships and encountered systematic injustice on numerous occasions. However, she has not only survived but thrived through it all. Armed with her Education, work experience, skill and knowledge of community engagement programming and how it affects our day to day lives, policy making, and legislature, Olga travels around her local and global communities educating the masses (one neighborhood at a time) on enduring and gaining autonomy over the incidents that may affect our mental health. Consequently, the goal is to gain effective knowledge on how we can live a sustainable life in spite of and because of these often life altering events.

***Let it move you!***
**Journal Sketch, 2024**
**Mixed Media**

Projects and programming

Art Therapy 101 - painting basics: We discover how self inspired creation helps us release emotion as well as identify a lot of hazy areas in life. Art Therapy 101 with DS by Olga is an interactive creative class that centers around nurturing our mental health. In these sessions, we Identify who we are; Express ourselves; and Acknowledge all that we are. The end goal is to bask in the “I AM” in spite of what is happening around us, as well as learn how we can embrace that which we need to.
Visual Art exhibition and speaking engagement with interactive audience participation. These sessions may also include dance, music, spoken word and other Art genres.
The DSMobile will bring the Art therapy to you through our Art therapy 101 class; as well as through healing circles in safe spaces with safe facilitators.

***A love bouquet to myself***
**Journal Sketch, 2024**
**Mixed Media**

Why Art Therapy?

Olga is a professional Visual Artist who engages communities through various community classes, such as Art therapy 101, exhibitions, speaking engagements, event planning and community organizing.

Olga had a seemingly decent childhood. However, living in different Geographic settings, she encountered adversity, as anyone would dwelling among various cultures and communities around the world. Part of her work’s inspiration and community healing motivation is drawn from the experiences, influences and places she lived. Olga is no stranger to the adversities of the world presented to her as an immigrant and woman of color. Some of her struggles have been perpetual identity crises, often referring to herself as a “mental health refugee.” Part of Olga’s Artist journey story is highlighted in an episode of the award winning PBS show, “Postcards,” which aired in 2017. An episode which has since aired numerous times as one of PBS Postcards’ Top 10.