Photo: Broken Mirror Healing - Facebook
Ornaments at Broken Mirror Healing
After the Waukesha parade tragedy on Nov. 20, art therapist Mira Alexandrea Newell, owner of Broken Mirror Healing who attended school in Waukesha, knew she had to take action to help support the community. “When this tragedy happened, I just felt it was my duty to bring healing to this place,” she said.
After partnering with the Red Cross and Wisconsin Art Therapy Association’s Social Action Committee, Newell created the Comfort and Joy Ornament Project, a collaborative art process in which two templates are used to create paper ornaments. “One can be kept by the creator and their family, and one can be gifted to the community,” said Newell.
The Shepherd Express recently interviewed Newell about the art project and its impact on the Waukesha community.
What inspired you to use ornaments as a symbol of community healing for this project?
The parade’s intended theme was “Comfort and Joy.” I wanted to take these words and infuse life into them. I also wanted to have a visual artifact as a symbol of hope that could be passed on. I have found art to be a powerful medicine for those things that words alone won’t quite wrap around.
Photo: Broken Mirror Healing - Facebook
Ornament at Broken Mirror Healing
I walked along the streets of downtown Waukesha the day after the tragedy, and everything was so quiet, and the trees were all bare. I thought “How can we fill these bare branches with color, and how can we fill these hurting hearts with hope?” Everything happened around Christmastime, so ornaments made a fitting medium for this project. The ornaments are hung on bare branches, which can evolve throughout the seasons.
|
|
Overall, the aim of the project is to create awareness that the healing process is not linear nor short. It takes time and collective intention; it takes a village working through many seasons.
How has the Waukesha community and surrounding communities supported you in this project, and how has the project evolved?
First, I designed an ornament template and sent it to a family friend that works for the Red Cross. The work began at the Red Cross Family and Friends Resource Center at Carroll University, and reached more people with a Community Support event at Donna Lexa Art Center.
I’ve also held workshops at Martha Merrill’s Books in Waukesha and other locations throughout Wisconsin. People in Milwaukee wanted to send their love, so I recently held a workshop at Altered State of Mind, a metaphysical shop in Bay View. Ornament-making workshops in Kenosha gave people a way to express their love and support. There has been a lot of violence happening in Wisconsin in recent months—the state has been put in the international spotlight. We have the power to write the story that will fill the next page. If violence sparks violence, we can get peace to spark peace.
Several Waukesha shops, including Martha Merrill’s, have agreed to display the ornaments on Healing Trees for their businesses for the coming months, as a continued memorial and a show of solidarity.
What are some of your plans with the project, and how can people get involved?
For each season I will be creating a new downloadable ornament template. Those interested in participating can create ornaments on their own, or as part of a group workshop. The winter template will be a star shining light in the darkness, and the spring template will be a flower bringing new life. The ornaments will continue to be hung on Healing Trees in downtown Waukesha businesses.
Visit wiarttherapy.org/events/ for templates, instructions and workshop information, and facebook.com/brokenmirrorhealing/ for project updates, stories and images.
Photo: Broken Mirror Healing - Facebook
Ornaments at Broken Mirror Healing
Completed ornaments can be sent to Healing Hearts of Southeastern Wisconsin, 121 Wisconsin Avenue, Waukesha, WI 53186.
From 5:30-8 p.m. January 20, Waukesha High School will host “Wellness for Waukesha,” an event to help families cope with the grief and trauma due to the Waukesha Christmas Parade events. A collaboration between Healing Hearts of Southeastern Wisconsin and Children’s Wisconsin, “Wellness for Waukesha” presents a variety of effective grief therapy methods, such as music, art, movement sound, and talk therapy modalities. I will be leading a community art therapy experience.
Ornaments created in December will be gifted to families directly affected by the parade tragedy, and they will have the opportunity to create star ornaments together.
Dinner and childcare are included, and the event is free. Visit healingheartswisconsin.org for more information.
