It’s been a full week since I last worked on and spoke about my projects either behind the scenes or online on Twitter, but I think it’s time now to really delve into everything that I want to do with these four main projects, as defined above! So, let’s jump in, shall we?
PS Stay until the end to see my new business cards that I created and ordered from the super lovely graphic design website Canva (that I also use for all my Youtube and blog thumbs!)
Project 1: Recovery Restoration (born 2017)
You guys may remember, if you’ve been following me since 2017 or so, the start of this thumb. I have since edited it slightly so you may notice the changes, but I’m very excited for what this project is and what dreams I have for it, which I will get into in just a moment! 🙂
This project’s unique and “old” thumb from back in the day, with slight edits.
What is the goal of Recovery Restoration?
The goal of Recovery Restoration is about sharing visual and written forms of artwork to provide peer support and encouragement to those just beginning or in the middle of their recovery journeys with others who have struggled and come through to the other side. Recovery Restoration recognizes that our recoveries are ongoing journeys and believes that giving light onto others can help them, too, out of the darkness. We still struggle, we still slip up, and we keep showing up, we keep fighting, and we keep continuing onwards, which in and of itself is what survivors radiating badassery do.
Recovery Restoration is about providing each other hope and help by saying “I’ve been there too, and I’ve made it all the way here” in an effort to be compassionate, wise, kind and helpful. It’s a walk of advocacy sharing our lived experiences so that someone else may be able to suffer less or struggle but knowing that they are not alone, that there is help and hope available to them.
What is the dream for Recovery Restoration?
The ultimate dream for Recovery Restoration is to share our stories with one another in a way that is visually pleasing and overall optimistic, hopeful, bright and colorful while also balancing realism and the fact that recovery is not a linear process yet better days can be found ahead. The photo albums and folders will be donated to various psychiatric facilities across the state of Massachusetts, with prototypes and initially my own artwork showcased and then including other’s works when the project gets large enough.
What are the conditions for Recovery Restoration?
Because the artwork requires being positive and pleasing, it can’t be triggering with sensitive subject matters (suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, trauma, substance use). Of course, art is subjective which is why the artist’s reasoning behind the photo, what inspired the image, when they created the image, what the image meant for them in their journey and some explanation as to why they created the piece to begin with, will be included on the page after or near enough to the image to be connected and part of the overall story.
Additionally, alongside a person’s submission, they will have to specify how they wish to be credited: ranging from a full name (first and last), nickname, username (social media), phrase, symbol, etc. Permissions to use their artwork and their descriptions must be explicitly written out in a permission form so as to avoid potential legal issues. (I will be making up the form from having previous experience doing similar behaviors with my Photography Club at UMB).
Along with the artistic submission, a person will need to include a little blurb about themselves to be featured at the end of the album/last album pages (in a part called “About the Artist”, saying quirky things or likes/dislikes in life, movies, what inspires them, potentially what diagnoses they live with although this might be told elsewhere, for instance, in their artwork). Also at the start and end of the album will be more about the project itself and its goals, possibly featuring the thumb shown above, with the business cards for the projects to be sent to the front desk of the psychiatric facility for anyone who wishes to write down or record further information on the project’s founders (me).
How will pieces be chosen?
Because this is still a newbie project, I will be using my own artwork to start with before the project is able to spread and be contributed to by others in their recoveries. As such, when choosing pieces to feature I will likely use Twitter or some online polling system to decide on what images versus others are the most appropriate and least offensive to be included in the work, especially if the album is shorter than others and I have only say 20 slots to work with but 30 images.
All descriptions of the artist’s work, about the artist, about the project and its founder and more will be typed up onto paper, as well.
What does this project cost?
I have to do a budgeting document for this project and may utilize websites like GoFundMe or PayPal for the future to raise money to help with the costs, or create fundraising campaigns (if you have any ideas for this, leave them in the comments or send me an email!).
Costs include: printing paper (photo paper), paper paper, ink, print jobs (for instance I have a Canon printer at home so I’ll likely be trouble shooting with that rather than, or maybe sometimes going to CVS), photo albums, time to re-shoot images/artwork where necessary (I had a lot of the first prototype’s get cut off so I will likely need to re-shoot and resize them), folders for the writing portions of the project (as added in 2019).
Additionally, I will likely need a organized system for tracking crediting of artist’s, permission forms, budgeting documents, blurbs about the artist and the works themselves, and physical if not digital copies of the artwork as once the albums are put together all of the work will be donated to a psychiatric facility and no longer in my own possession.
There is no cost of the project to the hospitals themselves.
What do the prototypes look like?
I will keep up to two prototypes of this project including my artwork for myself to be shown when doing presentations of IOOV’s for NAMI-MA, at Passages (my day program), and for my own use or browsing etc. The gold and green is my first prototype, and the “Life is A Beautiful Ride” is my second. The 3 smaller albums will be donated once completely prepared. Images of these are shown below.
My first prototype for my own artwork in Recovery Restoration. This is one single page, horizontal.
My second prototype. This holds two slots on one vertical page. Purchased from Michael’s.
The slide show shows 3 small photo albums that are single paged, I believe 4×6. I got these at Michael’s.
What do my SMART goals for this project look like?
Writing this blog post is a really good way of me forming and brainstorming ideas that I’ve already written in my journal or planner while also providing some accountability for what I wish to accomplish with the preparation and actual donation of the items. I can’t say I’ll work on it every day, however, I do anticipate spending time working on the project weekly to really shape it up and carve out everything I want it to be about.
Also, because I’ve added the creative writing/nonfiction/fiction writing to the project, I will need to build this portion of it the most as it is still untouched at the moment. The writing portion of the project will follow the guidelines for the visual portion.
For more information on my detailed SMART goals for this project, along with a few others that I have yet to fully plan out, please refer to my future post where I fully explore the dimensions of the project, what goals and objectives I’ve set for myself and the timeline I wish to accomplish this in within the upcoming year.
Will I share the works I’ve created for this project with you all?
Yes, I plan to. I will likely create videos for it on my Youtube channel (link in my About the Artist section of my blog) and I can also do dedicated blog posts for them as well. A lot of them, you’ve likely seen showcased before on my blog over the years, too. For those who donate works to be included, I can promote them on my blog with appropriate links to their pages and social media accounts. 🙂
Ultimately, this post is longer than I intended and more informative and thorough than I was expecting. Therefore, I will end this post just about here and work on the other project posts into the foreseeable future. This post has taken a little over an hour to write and it’s extensive with more to be seen and shown and presented, and I think I’d rather just bite the bullet here and wait for more time in other days ahead to work on detailing my plans for my ongoing 3 other projects.
With that said, I will end each project post with my new business cards and this one, you’ll get a little more than usual because I have yet to have unveiled them on my Twitter and I don’t want to tease you all so much without any actual follow through 😉
So, last Friday I decided to come home from program and work on some business cards as my therapist had mentioned the idea of leaving some information about myself and my project with Unit Z as I just left off Recovery Reinforcer things the day before. I used Vistaprint back in the day for Photo Club business cards but I didn’t like all of their selections this time around. So, instead I worked with Canva which is where I make pretty much all my graphic designs, and I browsed through their different free templates until I found the one I wanted to work with.
I also found they had a printable option so I was able to just settle with what fun I could have with them and get my stuff printed and sent to me!
So, here’s the fancy box they came in, first the durable cardboard one (which I plan to keep and redecorate myself):
I like the frazzle stuff inside too!
And then the card holder they came in:
So cute and photogenic! 🙂
And now, for the big reveal!!!
This is the front! The name of my blog, my slogan and a little blurb about my projects! I used the ‘wedding’ template on Canva, if you’re interested! I just changed the colors and added some of the text to it. 🙂
And the back!
I decided to forgo my name explicitly written here as I wasn’t completely comfortable having that be one of the sole focuses (plus with some minor digging you can find out the rest). I wrote a little description of myself and my ideas and then have all my contact information.
On the back, as you can see, I manged to add the silhouette of the lighthouse and the lotus flower as I have them on my title card on my Youtube channel/on my blog and such.
I wasn’t able to find a free logo making and downloading site, but if I ever do, it’ll be a rainbow infused lighthouse. But for now, I just use a silhouette version.
And, that’s all from me!!!
I hope that you enjoyed this post! I hope that it was enlightening and creative and fun for you all to read! 🙂 Let me know what your thoughts are in the comments below or send me a message elsewhere on social media with your ideas! 🙂
Thanks again!! ❤ ❤ ❤
Now it’s time I go eat some dinner, ahaha.
RecoverytoWellness 