by Rebecca Murphy

Three women-all brain injury patients-greet me with smiles and warm hellos as I enter the art therapy classroom at The Mary Lee Foundation. Cindy, Olachi and Kathy are here for their weekly two-hour instruction taught by volunteer therapist Theresa Mosely and her two assistants, Marcella Rease and Mary Solanik. Mosely has spent a total of twenty years helping patients express themselves through art, and fifteen of those have been with The Mary Lee Foundation. Along with brain injury patients, Mosely also practices art therapy with those suffering from mental disorders, autism and Alzheimer's. Certified in Therapeutic Recreation, she is currently working towards a BA in Art at St. Edward's University.

Founded in 1963, The Mary Lee Foundation is a rehabilitation center located at 1339 Lamar Square Boulevard. It provides services to help individuals with disabilities become more mobile and independent. The center's Daybreak program, which meets every weekday from 9:30am-3:30pm, offers therapeutic activities, including art therapy.

Art therapy practitioners and advocates hold the belief that creative expression has the power to heal. They contend it can provide treatment for illnesses ranging from stress to mental retardation through facilitating an individual's communication, exploration, creation and healing.

Mosely's class uses oil and acrylic landscape painting as an outlet for creative expression. The students select landscape pictures, either from magazines or photographs, paint the basic images in the pictures and add a few touches of their own. Because landscape painting does not require the same exactitude as figure painting, the students have more freedom for personal expression and growth.

To compensate for their disabilities, Mosely and her assistants promote adaptive learning concepts while guiding students' brush strokes and aiding them in their choices of color and value. For example, because acrylic paint dries faster and enables students to paint over mistakes during the same class session, Mosely prefers it over oil paint for impulsive individuals who paint at a faster speed. In addition, Mosely teaches students who are still developing their drawing skills to fold their photographs into four separate quads to simplify the process, taking it one block at a time.

For students with physical disabilities, other compensations must be made. Kathy, for example, is unable to use the left side of her body; thus, she often tapes her work to the table to catch all of its angles while maneuvering herself around in her wheelchair. Her current painting depicts a rainbow in an open field. Mosely directs Kathy's progress, instructing her to touch the canvas to determine where the rainbow belongs in relation to her picture.

Brain injury often is coupled with short-term memory loss, a strong determinant of Mosely's teaching style. She teaches students to attach their pictures to the back of the canvas so that they do not forget their location. However, because students tend to misplace them, they often have to find a new image and start over. Olachi, who has multiple sclerosis, has dedicated an immense amount of time and effort to an aesthetic landscape painting. But today she cannot locate her photograph. Thus, she has no other choice but to start anew, using a different picture as her guide. Observing her reaction, I am struck by her calm response.

Upon my first glance at their completed works, the fact that the students suffer from brain disorders or injuries seems unlikely. These artists are the closest personifications of Monet and Degas that I have ever encountered! Their works encompass an impressionistic style, rich in color, value, texture and detail. Because the students derive their sole income from Social Security disability benefits, the selling of their work provides a desperately needed bonus. Olachi, who is not an American citizen and lives at home with her mother, does not qualify for Social Security. Thus, her only income lies in the selling of her paintings. An even more crucial issue, however, is that the students have no place to display their work because they lack the finances necessary to access public spaces. Plus, the students are lacking art supplies. Purchased by The Mary Lee Foundation with community donations, these supplies are necessary for the program to continue.

Some light, however, is being shone in their direction: The Brain Injury Association of Texas Conference will be featuring works from these artists at the Omni, South Park, on August 23rd-24th. Art Masters, an Austin framing company, is generously providing free frames for the event.

To learn more about The Mary Lee Foundation, the Brain Injury Class of Central Texas or the foundation's art therapy program, contact John McPhail at 512-443-5777 or Theresa Mosely at 512-894-0183.