By Krysti Jaglal, Hajar Rifai
With the school year getting busy as the semester winds down, Humber’s Spirituality and Wellness Centre (SWC) created an artistic getaway to give students a space to take a break during these stressful times.
Earlier this week it hosted the ‘Sip, Paint and Karaoke’ event in NX111.
Attendees were given glasses of non-alcoholic white wine and rosé to enjoy while they worked on their paintings. When not painting, they could sing karaoke or use a photo booth to document their memories.
Sofia Moreno was a first-time attendee at one of the SWC events, and she says it was a great way to unwind.
“My favourite part of today was being in a creative space. The vibes in the room were really relaxing, everyone was in their own element and doing art feels relaxing no matter if it’s painting, drawing, and stuff,” she said.
“I love painting, I love art so this was a really fun thing to do,” said Moreno.
Each work station was equipped with paint, brushes dipped in cups of water and an easel with an outline of an image.
The images were drawn by artist Ashante Blackwood, who hosted the event.
Blackwood said her end goal has always been to show that there’s room for women of colour within the art world.
“Obviously growing up dark skin and being thick, being an artist wasn’t really a thing. So when I decided to create art, I wanted to kind of showcase women that look like me and make them wake up every day and feel like they’re that girl. So that’s really where my dream started,” she said.
Stephanie Boachie, SWC’s event coordinator, said the sip and paint was the last event of the semester following a successful inaugural year.
“The year has been extremely amazing. Like so much has happened within a short period of time. A lot of new faces in the center, so many collaborations with internal vendors and external vendors,” she said.
One of the external vendors was Design with Wine, which sponsored the Sip and Paint alongside vendor Saintly Wine. Students were also offered sandwiches, cookies, and juice for those who chose not to have wine.
“I feel like painting is another way of therapy that is not really talked about much. Seeing the colors, the way the brush strokes are going, all those things really do help you to calm down and to concentrate. And you do forget sometimes it kind of alleviates some of your problems and it gives you a way to just express yourself,” Boachie said.
Boachie said painting events tend to be more successful for the centre and it felt right to make a a painting event their last one. “I think the turnout for the paint events are always so big because it allows people to showcase their creative side.”
Blackwood wanted everyone at the event to know that they didn’t need to be professionals in order to create art.she says the key is to be consistent.
“If any of you guys want to do art you can definitely do it,” she said.