Alcohol Abuse and Art

Paper covers the cans to allow sunlight and shadows to be more clearly seen.  Just like in life, advertising can make it difficult to see the truth about alcohol.

The lesson began with a value study to learn how to change watercolor from dark to light, just like we can change our lives from dark to light.

Phoenix facilitators Lamo and Jon, along with inmates, look at the subject of their paintings.

A surprising majority of inmates in KwaZulu Natal prisons were under the influence of alcohol when they committed crime.  In this section 10 of Phoenix's "Starting With Us" program, a facilitator leads inmates through a memoir exerpt that describes a woman's plunge into alcoholism.  They discuss the role alcohol has had in their lives, and talk about the kind of support needed by people who abuse alcohol.  Resources for support outside of prison are also provided.

Magdalena (a German art therapist) and I developed an art lesson to help inmates visualize these concepts.  I began by teaching them how to paint a value scale with watercolor.  Then we talked about the shape of the can we would draw, how the sunlight hits it, and how the shadow that is cast is the darkest part.  Magda dicussed how alcohol has a light side (fun, parties, friends) and a dark side (can cloud your judgment and cause you to become violent).  The positive side is that, just like we can lighten watercolor paint by cleaning the brush and removing the dark paint from it, we can clean up our lives by not abusing alcohol.