Paint and Heal provides chance to find healing through art
Published 12:10 am Wednesday, February 19, 2025
A group of ladies are all smiles at one of the Paint and Heal events. — Submitted
The ladies have a time of prayer during the Paint and Heal. — Submitted
The ladies display their finished canvases from a Paint and Heal event. — Submitted
A participant paints one of the provided canvases at a previous Paint and Heal event. — Submitted
One of the signs that the ladies see as they walk into the event space. — Submitted
One of the signs welcoming the group to the Paint and Heal. — Submitted
Karen Kistler
karen.kistler@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — Believing in the power of art as therapy, Jante Gibson-Bryant, is offering an event that spotlights art and provides an opportunity to, as the name says, Paint and Heal.
The event, she said, is an extension of another group that she founded and hosts, Coffee and Conversations, which offers a safe space for open communication. She is also the founder and executive director of Awakenher Wellness, a charitable organization, which is geared toward women.
This will be the second annual Paint and Heal event, and this year’s theme will be “Woman Evolve” inviting women to come and, as the Eventbrite invitation states, to “unlock your creativity and find healing through art.” It will be held on March 29 from 3-6 p.m. at City Park Recreation Center, 316 Lake Drive, Salisbury.
There is a fee of $50 to participate and those wishing to attend may register and pay online on the Awakenher Wellness events on Eventbrite. This fee, said Gibson-Bryant, covers everything needed for the event including paint, canvas, raffles and a meal.
Paint and Heal has provided a way for Gibson-Bryant to heal from the sudden death of her mom on March 21, 2019.
She said she remembers before that time wishing for spring and she couldn’t wait for it to arrive, but, as she said, not knowing “what the spring was going to cost me that year.”
Therefore, “Paint and Heal for me is a way to rewire my brain because for a long time it has been so hard for me to be excited about things and anticipate things,” she said.
At the time, most people didn’t know what she was experiencing and “her mom’s passing was one of those things that pushed me over the edge when it came to the anxiety” she was having, she added. So she decided to offer the Paint and Heal.
The event will be a spring-type event with lots of butterflies and colors, said Gibson-Bryant.
“That’s what God has given me,” she said.
Last year’s theme was New Beginnings and she used the verse from Isaiah 43:19, “Behold, I will do a new thing” to go with it. The theme has changed this year; however, she decided to keep the verse the same and not change it from year to year.
A creative person, Gibson-Bryant said she uses writing as her art form. As a child, she used to draw and said she can but doesn’t do it as much, unlike her children who are very artistic and paint and draw more than she does. She has six children, she said — three sons and three daughters.
In fact, she said, her middle son drew a lotus flower, which served as her logo, and she put it on a canvas and raffled it off at last year’s event.
Gibson-Bryant also enjoys doing crafts and made the centerpieces for last year’s Paint and Heal making flower balls of different colors. Each colorful centerpiece was a different shape and size and this became her new logo.
She switched her logo, still keeping it a lotus flower but wanting something more colorful.
“It used to be just rolled with gold, but now it’s multicolor to represent the diversity found in Awakenher Wellness, not just with ethnicity but with our background because Awakenher Wellness is for all women, despite what your economic background is, despite your race, despite your religion, it is for all of us,” she said.
This year’s Paint and Heal will look similar to last year, Gibson-Bryant said with signs to welcome the ladies as they arrive and others “telling things like ‘you are loved’ and ‘you are worthy’ leading into the room.”
In the room at the City Park Recreation Center, the canvases will be set up for the women to begin painting.
She had a backdrop with balloons and flowers plus a raffle table and food provided, which will also be offered this year.
A video was played and she used one of her books, titled “Into the Darkness,” to discuss things she has experienced, she said.
The book that she plans to use this year is titled “Begin Again Again” as she goes through a new journey of life being a stay at home mom to being almost an empty nester and having started a career later in life.
At the first event, she said there “were some tears, there was laughter, there were testimonies, there was unity among the women. That was the big, big thing, sisterhood,” said Gibson-Bryant, “and I heard several people that said, by you showing your story, meaning me, it gave them permission to share their story.”
She said that many need to “give ourselves permission to let our lights shine and in doing that, we give other people permission to let their light shine because a lot of women, men as well, they feel like, oh God can’t use me, I’ve done too much, my past is too ugly.”
