ART AN ALTERNATIVE TO VIOLENCE

I believe we can use art as an alternative to violence! Something we can teach our youth and individuals struggling with anger management. So many times, I have heard some youth say they feel like punching someone in the face, well my response to that would be, “what would that look like on a canvas?” Put those feelings on canvas, in color or with objects like crushed shells. The point would be to get them engaged in the artwork. Once they are engrossed in the project I would wait and come back to them after a while and ask them why they wanted to punch someone and most of the time they will not even remember what they were angry about. The point is that it wasn’t even that important after all. We can start a discussion about why they felt the anger in the first place. Art can be a form of therapy to bring out those feelings of aggression onto a canvas and not another human being! Creating out of feeling which is what art is all about!