Stepping out from a label
3 July 2008
Ingrid Jenner sits at her diningroom window watching the birds in her garden: sparrows, wax eyes, blackbirds, thrushes, and the occasional tui or fantail.
“I’m a very visual person and I love watching nature: the cats, birds in the feeder, the trees swaying in the breeze,” she says. “My brother gave me the bird feeder and it’s given me such pleasure. I love watching bird behaviour. There’s all this funniness and activity outside my window.”
Ingrid’s observations are captured in her artwork. Recently, she’s begun painting the birds she loves to watch. “I want to express the feelings that I have for these birds and what they mean to me – the joy they bring.”
Dealing with mental ill-health for most of her life and diagnosed as bi-polar in 2000, Ingrid says she feels incomplete when she isn’t expressing herself through her art.
In 1970, she dropped out of design school three months before completing her diploma. For the next 30 years, she abandoned her art apart from dabbling occasionally in life drawing.
Supportive environment
But she was always aware that she was denying an essential part of herself. In 2000, with the onset of severe illness, she started attending Pablos Art Studios in Wellington. Since then, it has provided her with a supportive environment where she can pursue and develop her art.
“Pablos has provided me with structure, an occupation, a daily routine and a sense of community,” Ingrid says. “I hate to think what would have happened to me if it hadn’t been there. Pablos probably saved my life and I’m very fortunate to have it.”
As Ingrid’s life has become more stable, she is less dependent on Pablos Art Studios but still likes to keep in regular contact. “I want to have a life that I want to live – not just an existence. My artwork is an integral part of who I am. If it’s not expressed, my life is out of balance.”
Open five days a week, Pablos Art Studios supports more than 100 individuals every year and has up to 25 artists attending on a daily basis. As Ingrid points out, everyone who goes to Pablos is different. But they have one thing in common. They have all experienced mental ill-health.
Established in 1993, Pablos Art Studios facilitates artistic expression, and encourages personal growth and independence through the arts. As well as an art studio, it runs ROAR! gallery where Pablos’ artists exhibit their work alongside others in the outsider artist community.
“Art is a perfect medium for people who experience mental illness to express their creativity and build their self-esteem,” says co-ordinator Fiona Elwood. “It’s a very personal thing and there are no rights and wrongs in art. It gives people an ability to step out from a label and into the world.”