By Meghan Streit
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

Ethel Regan recently spent a sunny afternoon in an art studio gluing colorful glass tiles to an old table, giving it new life as an artful mosaic. Regan says she has dabbled in oil painting in the past  but had never tried her handat mosaics until she enrolled in a mixed media art class at Sedgebrook.

“If they didn’t have this class here, I never would have done this,” she says as she spreads grout onto the tabletop.

Art instructors Lisa Black and Diane Capasso say that is their goal—to expose students to interesting and new ways of creating art. “That’s what we try to do: introduce new things for people to try,” Black says.

While Regan worked on her mosaic table, others completed paper wall hangings crafted by gluing delicate  papers in different designs to a cardboard backing. Crafters can base their designs on certain themes or color schemes, and then frame the pieces for display in their homes.

Healing through art therapy
Completing an art project certainly brings with it the satisfaction of learning something new and possibly creating a show piece for your home or a gift for someone else. But besides the sheer joy and relaxation that comes with expressing yourself artistically, studies show it can also benefit your health.

That’s what Dr. Judith Paice, director of Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Cancer Pain Program, found when she conducted a study to discover the correlation between pain reduction and art therapy sessions in cancer patients.

“We know that people with cancer have a pretty significant pain burden, and we have many medications to treat symptoms,” Paice says. “But we also know that medications alone are not enough.”