Exploring Creativity: Things that Make me Happy

Truth Be Told’s Exploring Creativity Workshop introduces expressive arts as ways to relieve stress, channel emotions, and awaken creativity. “Things That Make Me Happy” was the topic for the last TBT session at Hilltop in Gatesville. The women made a list of their happy things. Then, they picked one and wrote a story about it.

We would like to share some of their happy stories, in a 3-part series. Here is Part One:

Meeting 25 Awesome New Friends—Smiling, Creative, Brave Women

By Bonnie Watkins, “Exploring Creativity” facilitator for the Hilltop class, November 2012

Today I have the joy and privilege of getting to meet a bunch of new friends. These women have beautiful smiles and beautiful names. I see all around me the evidence of their creativity—puffy white clouds painted on not one but several different colors of blue skies to brighten the walls of their dayroom. Underneath, other artists have completely covered the white cinderblock dividers in front of the toilets with every possible color and type of flower—so vibrant that I can almost smell them.

Another resourceful woman has patiently lettered one of my favorite prayers—The Serenity Prayer—on another wall. Bright, orange pumpkins and fat turkey gobblers border the bulletin boards, reminding us of Halloween and Thanksgiving, just past. I bet that soon all kinds of festive hand-crafted Christmas decorations will cover the walls of this room. These women turn nothing, mere paper and markers into art. In another corner, a little dieffenbachia seedling is sprouting roots in a pot of water next to the mother plant, next to a window with bars—their creative way of “greening” the room and growing more.

Pencils and pens drag or fly across single sheets of paper or in composition notebooks and journals. These women may all be dressed alike in white, but their creativity shines through even in how they have lettered their name tags or in the variety of subjects and the choice of images they use in their writing. Their hairstyles also reveal their individual creativity. Some wear their hair in long, loose curls, some in simple pony tails, but even they vary, some high, others low, some on top of their heads. They find countless ways to express themselves uniquely and individually.

8 Things that Make Me Happy

By Antigone Overstreet

–awakening to a new day in a sane and clear mind
–being in love and loved in return
–singing to an audience or in an intimate setting
–reading music, learning music, performing music
–being cast as a main character in a play or musical or opera
–watching people enjoy the food that I’ve prepared
–baking breads, pies, cakes, or cookies
–eating good cuisine

11 Things That Make Me Happy

By Carla B. Williams

–watching TV with no interruptions
–singing a song that really speaks to me
–spending time with God
–just laying on the bed, lost in good memories
–pepperoni, Canadian bacon and pineapple pizza with an ice-cold Pepsi
–walking on the beach feeling the sand between my toes
–riding the ferry, feeding the seagulls
–just having a great conversation with friends
–sitting in visitation with my dad, even though he doesn’t say much
–getting a letter from my family
–knowing that I’m a grandmother

To See My Daughter Smile When I Pick Her up from School

By Priscilla Rodriguez

My day starts out bad, waking up late. I have to get my daughter ready for school and myself ready for an interview. I make it just in time for McKailey to get to go to breakfast. Then my car doesn’t start. Finally, I’m five minutes late to my interview. I’m offered a glass of water and I take the offer cause my mouth is dry. As I take a drink, the glass slips from my hand. Water’s all over me. Interview’s done. They say they’ll call me.

I walk out to the parking lot and one of my tires is flat. I ran over a nail. So now I have to call someone to take the car to the auto shop and since I’m there I get a whole inspection and new tires. I’ve been in the auto shop all day. Now it’s time to pick up my daughter from school. As I walk into her classroom, her eyes light up and a big smile forms across her face. Even though my day was bad, seeing my daughter’s excitement to see me has made me forget about my bad day and now I’m happy.

For The Music

Today’s guest post is from Kay R. a Behind Bars participant in Peggy Lamb’s Exploring Creativity Workshop .

For Peggy Lamb and Truth Be Told
Creative Writing by Kay R.

Thank you for the music
Thank you for the celebration

I felt the drumbeat of Native Americans
My feet danced as if on the US plains
My sister felt drums beating in Africa
Her feet danced as if in the jungle
Another felt the salsa beat of Mexico
Her feet danced as in “fiesta” or “carnival”
Yet another felt the beat of a waterfall
Her feet danced as if on shore
We all danced to the pulse of life

It’s been so long since I danced
So long since my heart soared

Thank you for the spark of creativity

We danced heartfelt stories of life
We wrote stories of life
We spoke stories of life
We shared in celebration of life

Thank you for the energy
Thank you for the music

Please, oh please, more music
Please, oh please, more dancing
Please, oh please, more celebration

Kay’s Bio:

“I find that the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as I what direction we are moving.” Oliver Wendell Holmes

In an attempt to share some of me with you, I ask myself if I could live my life over what would I change? Oh, if only I could run away and escape from this and start all over again!

I’ve learned, with a smidgen of wisdom and a smile, that a fresh beginning could never solve anything. GET REAL! Stating I wouldn’t make the same mistakes, yet again, is a fantasy! I can’t run away from myself. My troubles are self-created. In wondrous maturity I’ve learned that I can only change my point of view and evolve. Yay! Little by little, I can change myself and my world. I’m making a new me out of the old one and I’m loving the new me!

Geez folks! Where to start? I am 60 years old and I can honestly shout out, “I am experienced.” I have lived a lot of life. A child of the 60’s, a flower in my hair, I enrolled in University of Texas at Austin in the fall of 1969, I was seventeen! I jumped right in to the anti-establishment movement. Submerged in idealism and hope I was all about protest, determined to change the world. Philosophy was my major and my passion.

Of course, I embraced the Austin live music scene. I wasn’t one to watch and listen from the sidelines. I started out at Armadillo World Headquarters as a waitress and morphed into music scene savvy doing concert security, promo booking! What fun! Yup, I was there, all the time, everywhere.

Drugs flowed freely. Mind expansion I thoroughly nourished. The LSD, Psilocybin, and Mescaline triggered magical experiences. We were living an essence of spiritual purity for a moment.

Fast forward to 2006, I’m lost and screaming out to God asking him to show me something more. “There’s got to be something more; God if you’re really there and listening then help me,” I wailed each night, alone in bed.

I had eventually earned a degree in Social Work, but remaining a non-conformist, I found myself working as a server in a fine dining restaurant in beautiful Marble Falls, while working on my MBA. Was academic pursuit another escape? “Growing up” was a concept I thoroughly and successfully avoided, Rock and Roll forever. Get the surfboard out and hang ten!

Medicated with all kinds of MHMR “solutions,” I had a wreck and hurt someone – BAD. Sirens. Life flight. Oh my! Put on the brakes. Don’t pass go. Go straight to prison.

I’ve been incarcerated just short of three years. I’ve enrolled in every self-help and faith-based class available for me. Truth Be Told’s self-discovery class, Let’s Get Real, really inspired me to connect with my inner essence. To keep connected with my goals. I attend weekly Al-Anon meetings, journal, and study Siddha Yoga by correspondence. I am in the Paws in Prison program learning the language of dogs and how to socialize and train shelter dogs for adoption.

I have a view to engage in service for m community upon release. I plan to work with Search and Rescue Operations and develop my own do therapy organization. I feel ready for the challenges ahead. I know that continued contact with Truth Be Told will help keep me grounded. I’m all about peace, harmony, spirituality, and service.

Thank you gracious ladies of Truth Be Told.

Making art at Gatesville: Peg Runnels teaches Exploring Creativity

Painter, photographer, mixed media artist, and Truth Be Told supporter Peg Runnels describes her experience teaching an Exploring Creativity class to Gatesville inmates:

Although I’d volunteered at Lockhart many times, when Peggy Lamb asked me to do art with the Gatesville inmates for Exploring Creativity, I said yes. Immediately I felt apprehension. This was for the sex offender unit: Would I be able to be with them without judgment? Could I even like them?

As the time approached, I grew anxious. What if I in my ignorance said or did something offensive? What might happen? Not knowing anything about them caused me fear.

I wondered what I might have to offer to inspire their art. The phrase came to me, What Do You Dare to Dream? I let that play in my mind, wondering how to make that come alive. And then What Do I Dare to Dream? became the next question. One thing I’m afraid of is dancing in front of others, so I decided that is what I would do.

Arriving at Gatesville, I was nearly quaking. When it was time, Peggy had the women form a circle, introduced me, and without saying a word I began to dance in the circle, a dance of fear and nervousness. I looked each woman in the eye. Their eyes showed confusion as they glanced at each other. What is she doing, they seemed to say. Then as my vulnerability dance began to change into acceptance, I saw their faces soften and grow warm. We had connection.

Describing why I danced for them — to dare to dream and to face my fears — I told them to consider what they might dare to dream and to bring into reality. I suggested they paint that question. Eagerly they jumped in and silently made paintings and collage.

Facing my fears helped them face theirs.

At the end we formed another circle, this time with each woman holding her art in front of her. In silence, we looked around at each unique work of art, amazed at the quality and depth.

Then an amazing thing happened. I said, We only have 15 minutes before cleanup so there isn’t time for everyone to speak, but if you don’t talk too much a few of you can share about your art. One woman quickly jumped in and said a couple of things about hers and as she walked around inside the circle showing it, someone else began telling about her piece, and while she was showing another began to speak. This pattern continued, and every woman who wanted to speak got her turn. Only one out of the 27 declined. This was a group-think solution that worked better than anything I could have planned.

In this morning at the prison, I came away deeply satisfied and fulfilled. I’m sure I learned more than anyone there.

Peg’s Bio

I have always been introspective. A high school English teacher assigned an autobiography paper and while other students groaned, I secretly rejoiced. We were to include our personal credo, and I remember writing values that are still true for me today:

• I agree with Socrates, An unexamined life is not worth living;
• I choose to seek and find beauty in simple everyday things;
• I seek to be authentic.

My masks reflect those values.

I was 28 when my mom died. Afterwards I longed to read anything that might tell me more about her — diaries, journals, letters — but there was nothing. My children will know me, I resolved, and began keeping personal journals and finding expression in art, writing, photography, and now personal masks. The masks tell my life.  Each one has her story; each one is a part of me. My masks are part of a larger plan to know myself and to share who I am.

A native of Dallas, I married and moved to Austin. My husband Jim went to UT and I stayed home with children. At 42, my children grown, I attended St. Edward’s University. For several years I photographed homes for builders, pursued art photography, and had a few photo exhibits. Now I lead creativity retreats and workshops where we write, create art, or make masks.

My art pursuits are very diverse. For example, in 2004, this is what I did:  curated and exhibited in a group nature photography show at Mayfield Park; exhibited my photography series titled Home at the Carr America building; created a piece named Mardi Bra  for Firehouse Gallery’s breast cancer awareness show in Fort Worth; led several weekend creativity retreats; gave two talks on Staying True to Yourself at Lockhart Women’s Prison including showing masks; had a month-long solo exhibit at Tarrytown Baptist Church, including artist’s talk; exhibited at The Driskill Hotel with art opening celebration; and exhibited at Norwood Towers (Seventh and Lavaca) for six weeks.

All of the things I do support my life values: to examine my life and live it consciously; to seek and show beauty; to live as authentically as I can. I try to be the change I hope for the world.