Louise Jensen

Through July to September 2021 twelve adult members of the 4Winds Mental Health Resource and Drop-in Centre came together to share their experience of lockdown and their creative endeavours throughout that challenging time. The work touched on themes of anxiety and uncertainty, but also of finding solace through nature and through the act of creativity itself.

Miniature books

Together we spent six weeks making miniature concertina books, experimenting with colours, focussing on a playfulness with paint and print, learning new techniques and gaining confidence in the process. 

Digital books

Each participant’s work, including my own, was brought together in individual digital books. In many cases this included work completed during lockdown, as well as the art work produced during the project itself. The books were edited collaboratively, using the words and images of their respective authors, and QR codes were created for each, for sharing with a wider audience.   

An artwork for 4Winds 

At the end of the project we held our Summer Arts Share in the Grange Gardens Bowls Pavilion, an important celebration of resilience and creativity.  Fifteen of us came together and shared poetry, song and our joint creation ‘ The Stone circle’. This artwork, incorporating all of our concertina books, is a tribute to the circle of stones in Cardiff Bute Park, and marks that very particular time in summer 2021, when 4Winds members had gathered for the first time since lockdown, to meet and share each other’s stories. 

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