Art for everyone: Art, Expression and Wellbeing

This Spring, Paint Jam London will be bringing free flowing creativity vibes to our Battersea Spring Collection talks and workshops programme. We’ve invited founder Dalia Zermon to walk you through the benefits of making art for everyone. Here’s what she had to say:

“We all love looking at beautiful artworks from an aesthetic point of view, but what about the process of making? What if the very process of making art was good for everyone?

On the back of a lifelong quasi-obsession with art and making, I’ve discovered that aside from the highs of seeing the finished article in a frame or on a plinth, the experience of making art – the very process, has extraordinary value. Making art is cathartic. Something about putting paint on canvas, cutting and sticking bits, carving and sculpting clay, actually makes me, and anyone who engages in making art feel creatively satisfied, self-expressed and alive.

I passionately believe that everyone, not just ‘artists,’ can benefit from the process of making art. Art for the people! I founded Paint Jam London in 2009 as an inclusive social art studio and have made offering art for everyone my life mission.

Cut back a couple of decades to the 90s and I was a frustrated, emo teenager that stayed home on Saturday nights painting as I listened to radio one. Art helped me cope with my emotions back then and has improved my wellbeing today. Making is an essential part of who I am and how I live my life – other artists would say the same, and here’s why…

Making art can help you to feel free, it brings you into the present moment and puts you in touch with your feelings. It can relax you and make you feel connected to life or at one with something bigger than yourself – a space very close to meditation. More than anything, making art can help you to express. When I am painting it feels like the parts of me that need to come out are spoken through the paint brush, in a language that transcends words. Creative expression says ‘look, I am here,’ the authentic me is here on the canvas. This feels like a massive release. Oh, and did I mention making art is really fun?

Paint Jam London workshops are for anyone and everyone, no experience needed. All events happen in our pop-up art studio, a social art-making space with music. The social environment melts away fears. We create a space to explore, with paints and art materials, a London artist leading the workshop, and the rest does itself. Tens of thousands of people have made art in Paint Jam’s art studios, the benefits of art are reconfirmed with every person we watch paint!”

You can join Dalia and her fellow Paint Jam London crew at the Battersea Spring Fair this March by taking part in one of their Art and Meditation or Communal Canvas workshops. There is something for all the family and we would encourage you all to get stuck in and explore the depths of your creativity just as Dalia says!

Book your tickets for the Battersea Spring fair here »

Images from top to bottom:
Tableau Software Paint Jam Party. 2015. Photography Romain Kedochim and Soda Visual Ltd.
Unilever Paint Jam Party. 2015. Photography Carmen Klammer.
Harris & Hoole’s Paint Jam Team Building, ‘A-Z of Painting’. 2013. Photography Dalia Zermon.