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Art has been my outlet for healing and connecting with people. My natural response to this is: “I can’t help it.” It is very important for me to only participate in things I’m passionate about. When I live this way, I’m always excited about what’s to come. There are days where I have been told to slow down or to do less. It’s where supporting local artisans, holding neighborhood meetings, facilitating retreats, teaching creative workshops and art shows are all happening. It is a multi-faceted creative space bringing together larger communities. The vision behind my new space, Makers' Loft, is larger than just an art gallery space. When I got this new space, I felt it deep in my soul that it was going to be so much more. The growth of Art Beat Events, led me to obtain the keys to my OWN art gallery/open space. As the business picked up, I outgrew that studio space.Įxpanding was the next step. Gratefully, I found a small space to rent, where I held workshops and events for a year and a half. At that point, I needed to find a studio space to unleash all of it’s potential. As Art Beat Events grew, my dream was coming true. But at the same time, I struggled with having spaces to create, my own sanity from the non-stop scheduling and the logistics of learning a new field. It began as a humble mobile business hauling art supplies (30-50lb totes) back and forth to different events for the first 3 years. Knowing that the power of art has been used for healing for hundreds of years, I decided to build my own creative events company, called Art Beat Events. I was intrigued by a medical article I once read about the link between art, science and health and how it’s incorporated in hospitals, rehabs, veterans with PTSD, etc. I wanted to give them the opportunity to heal through art as well.
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I wanted to bring art to people whether to their living room or their place of employment. Inspired by my community and the hustle of my friends who are artists, poets, musicians and entrepreneurs, I took a leap of faith and began to pursue my own creative entrepreneurial journey. After holding onto fear, anger, sadness and blame towards myself, it wasn’t until I shared a poem and a painting about my story that I opened up about what happened. I share this vulnerable part of my story because I know I am not alone. The sad truth is that every 98 seconds an American is sexually assaulted (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network). It was one of the most traumatic experiences I’ve ever been through and it took me 2 years to tell anyone. I am grateful for Oakland as I found art (my soul) again. As you can imagine, being 20 means going through lots of challenges. In my 20's, I moved to the city where both of my parents were born, this city has a powerful history and culture of art running deep in its veins. I was preoccupied with my studies, social life, puberty, sports, heartbreaks, you name it. Throughout high school, I lost touch with art, unless it was a class I was taking.
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I was also immersed in dance and would listen to music for hours as another outlet for healing and self-expression. I would spend all day outside drawing with chalk over every inch of the sidewalk, offering to paint faces at other kid’s birthday parties and winning drawing contests. Whether I knew it or not, art became my only way to escape this new reality. (don’t worry he is doing great today and is my biggest supporter) Understandably, this is why I felt like my life had flipped upside down. On the other hand, my father was partying a lot, which resulted in him abusing substances for many years. Not only that, her husband was physically and verbally abusive to her and sometimes to me as well. Then, my mother remarried when I was 6 and a half and by the time I was 8, I had 2 new younger sisters. I felt like my life had completely flipped upside down. My parents unexpectedly divorced when I was 5. I remember celebrating birthday parties with the neighborhood there were clowns, balloons and lots of happiness. You may wonder, what does art and healing mean to me? Starting from an average-looking, middle-class childhood, my world was pretty typical until after age 5. The timing couldn’t be more perfect for Sol Sisters to have asked me to write about the correlation of art and healing.
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As a result in taking this leap of faith, I recently got the keys to my own art gallery/open space. It’s 2017 now and after eleven years as a full-time Registered Dental Assistant, I decided to leave my job. I’ve learned that an artist is someone who makes art to save her life.” – Marlene Azoulai “I learned that an artist is not necessarily someone who has studied art, but one who has something to say, and the courage to say it.