Camas artist seeks to ‘stomp out loneliness’

The couple’s three daughters were 7, 12 and 15 years old when Ed died and Curley, then a labor and delivery nurse, knew she needed to keep going for her girls and for herself.

“There were many dark days. As I picked up the pieces of my life, I helped my daughters do the same,” Curley recently wrote on her website. “It’s a choice you know, to keep going.”

In search of a fresh start, Curley purchased the historic 1915 Farrell House in downtown Camas and found a daily routine that helped ease her broken heart. She would help her girls get ready for school, meet with the contractors renovating her home and then walk to a nearby coffee shop in downtown Camas.

“I met the most amazing women there, and many of them were also grieving,” Curley said.

One of those women was renowned Camas artist Elida Field, owner of Elida Art Studio and Gallery. Field encouraged Curley to come to a weekly art class at her studio.

Curley had no art experience but went to those classes every week and soon found herself agreeing to go with Field on a 17-day “Art, Women and Wine” tour of Italy. The group traipsed through Florence, Rome and the Amalfi Coast, sketching everything they saw with a black Sharpie in an art journal.

“It was soul-healing,” Curley said of the trip, noting on her website that she finally “began to see the light” while sketching in Italy. “I began transforming … one dot, one line at a time.”

When she returned to Camas, Curley found herself turning more and more to art as a healing tool. She would write in her journals throughout the day — and often in the middle of the night when she couldn’t sleep — and then cover those entries with paint. It was, Curley said, a way to release her emotions.

“If we keep these things inside, it can cause diseases,” Curley said. “It’s so important to get it out.”

When her mother died in 2016, Curley became even more connected to the idea of painting as a release. She would paint with her hands and fingertips, creating colorful abstract art.

“I could feel my emotions coming through my fingertips,” Curley wrote on her website. “Just as when a child begins to paint, there were no borders to the page. It was messy, but so freeing.”

As she healed — raising her girls, becoming a relatively well-known artist in Camas and even finding love again with her second husband, Mark Newberry, and his two daughters — Curley began to look for ways to help others.

“I wanted to take my tragedy and turn it into something beautiful,” Curley said.

Art4Healing

Curley moved into a small, light-filled art studio at 417 N.E. Dallas St. earlier this year. She began the process of turning her art business into a nonprofit in the hopes of using art to help others.

She also spent a year becoming a certified Art4Healing facilitator using a method developed by a New York artist who realized the power of painting and creativity to help people heal emotionally.

“This approach provides a safe, structured space for individuals to explore and process emotions, helping them heal from pain, grief, fear or stress,” according to the Art4Healing website. It is “specifically designed to aid those struggling with the emotional impacts of their work or personal lives.”

Curley recently hosted an Art4Healing workshop for a woman who was grieving the loss of her baby. The people who had come to the workshop to support that woman also found they were able to release pent-up emotions through the structured Art4Healing process, Curley said.

With Art4Healing, each two-hour workshop has the same structure. Curley leads the group through three different prompts using three different sizes of canvases. You don’t need art experience to benefit, Curley said. In fact, the group doesn’t even use paint brushes. Instead, Curley has participants use items such as makeup sponges and cotton swabs to create abstract art that is more about releasing emotions than creating something beautiful.

“Sometimes, when people see a blank canvas before them, it terrifies them, but there are no mistakes,” Curley said. “If you don’t like it, you can paint over it.”

June Vining has run the nonprofit Trauma Intervention Program out of Northeast Portland for 33 years, and has sent hundreds of trained volunteers to provide emotional support to survivors of traumatic events. In 2010, a TIP program volunteer arrived at Curley’s home after her husband’s suicide, wrapped a blanket around Curley and helped the grieving mother figure out how to take the next step.

Since then, Curley and Vining have kept in touch. Curley’s eldest daughter, Jessica, became a TIP teen volunteer and Vining has taken Curley’s art classes with friends and even members of her TIP staff.

Earlier this year, Curley helped Vining see the benefit of what she calls “art journaling” or the act of putting pen to paper and writing whatever comes out, then covering that journal entry with paint to help release stuck emotions.

“My son died by suicide when he was 17, so I’ve got this heavy stuff on my heart,” Vining said. “Heidi took me through this class, she has me writing and building on that. Now, I’m not waking up with anxiety or fear. I’m getting it out of my head. Getting it out and letting it go.”

Vining has discovered through Curley’s classes that, much like Curley, using her hands helps connect to deep-seated emotions.

“In order for your head and heart to connect, to let go, you have to use your hands,” Vining said. “This is not like going to therapy. It’s your own experience and Heidi is kind of guiding us. She’s asking questions and we’re writing and creating.”

Vining would like to work with Curley to help her TIP volunteers, who are all affected by the pain, grief and suffering they witness when they respond to tough calls such as suicides and homicides.

Curley also hopes her programs, which include Art4Healing, art journaling and other art workshops, can help parents of children with special needs through the state’s respite voucher program. As a state-certified provider, Curley can offer one-hour art classes for the children, giving parents a much-needed break.

These art classes will vary in structure and content depending on the child’s specific needs, abilities and interests. Curley said she is thrilled to be able to provide respite services for families in need.

“Special needs (parents) take zero time off, so this is for them, too,” Curley said.

Camas Police Chief Tina Jones also has talked with Curley about hosting Art4Healing workshops for officers and possibly for her staff members’ spouses and significant others, who also carry the weight of the traumas their partners respond to on a near daily basis.

“We’ve talked about a lot of ideas,” Jones said. “I’m excited about the program. Mental and emotional health is so important.”

Kelly Moyer: 360-735-4674; [email protected]