In my art therapy internship class we recently went to Verve Vertu, an art studio for the developmentally disabled, and rather than us being the art facilitators, an artist (the patrons of Verve Vertu are seen as artists rather than patients or clients) taught us how to batik. This was a great surprise because we thought we were just going to observe but this was even better. When we got there the studio was filled with other artists as well as there work lining the entire gallery. I kept thinking to myself how creative all of the different pieces were, some I even wanted to buy for my own home… if only I wasn’t a broke college kid (haha.)

I had never Batiked before so I was extremely excited. We used all different cookie cutters as a way to make a design on our rice paper. We had to dip the cookie cutter in hot wax and stamp it on to the paper. Then there were inks out for us to drop or paint on to the paper. Once those were mostly dry we ironed of the wax and had our finished pieces. We were also able to do multiples which was all the more fun. It was so exciting to see what every else did because every one did something different and you didn’t know how the inks were going to blend in the end. It was certainly a process but not as long or as hard as I thought it was going to be.

This was a great experience. I think there should be more studios like this because art truly does give one a purpose and art doesn’t discriminate which I think is a powerful message. Most of us in the class had never batiked before and this just proves that you can learn something from everyone.