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DAVID L. CODDON • LAST WORD
For fire victims, the healing, 'cathartic' power of art
May 20, 2004Tama Dumlao was one of the lucky ones. The firestorms of last fall missed her house. Just barely. She was out of town when raging flames came within half a mile of her Valley Center home, and spared it.
"That was very close," says Dumlao, who's also aware that "there's still potential that one (a wildfire) could get out of control, with the winds."
Not all of Dumlao's friends or neighbors in Valley Center were as fortunate. But she's not only an artist – she's an arts therapist, and that means she can help. In a profound, personal way.
Dumlao, along with fellow Valley Center resident Brandon Cesmat, a writer and poet, is heading up an arts recovery workshop for neighbors affected by the fire. Workshop meetings will be held from 10 a.m. to noon each Saturday in June at the Valley Center Library (29200 Cole Grade Road).
She sees the workshops as "the community coming together, being able to do something that is hands-on, and sharing that experience as they tell stories and network." Through the artwork they create, emblematic of their healing, those who participate will "leave with something that is a marker of a time in their life, a book-in-a-box kind of concept, documenting their recovery in a visual way."
While the healing power of art isn't brand-new, Dumlao says, it's mainly been experienced by children rather than by adults. They, too, she believes, can benefit from creativity as therapy.
"Because we get so sophisticated verbally, we censor ourselves early on and don't really get in touch with what our real feelings are," says Dumlao. "They don't get organized in our internal psyche.
"The art process gives us permission to allow that kind of unconscious self to have expression. There's relief in that. It's a cathartic, total personal experience of 'I don't have to carry this anymore.'"
The series of workshops, at which participants will create collages from magazines, handmade books and triptychs, are funded by the Synergy Art Foundation; a $20 materials fee is asked. Information: (858) 509-1155.
________________________________________________________________________David L. Coddon: (619) 293-1348: david.coddon@uniontrib.com
