January’s art project is to create diabetes-themed Valentine’s Day cards! Write a poem. Draw a picture. Take a photograph… Every February we are inundated with boxes of chocolate, heart-shaped lollipops, syrupy sweet analogies about love and friendship. What would your ideal Valentine’s Day card look like or say?
One of the things about TuDiabetes that has historically made it a truly unique place within the Diabetes Online Community was our focus on artistic expression. Over the years we as a community have done a number of beautifully creative projects aimed at encouraging people to use artistic expression as a way to tell our stories, connect to one another, comfort and inspire each other, educate others about what it feels like to have diabetes, and more.
In the last couple years those artistic projects have largely fallen by the wayside in favor of other endeavors, but we’re bringing them back! Since September of 2015 we have had monthly artistic projects for members to participate in. Later in 2016 we plan to select artistic pieces from community members to publish in a Diabetes Community Expression book which will be sold through the DHF online store! Some of our old-timers may recall that we published a book called No Sugar Added Poetry™ in this way, years ago, which is absolutely beautiful and which is still in demand today!
When I was a kid I LOVED making Valentine cards for all my friends, using heart-shaped paper doilies and magic markers. Maybe I’ll get to my local craft store and get some of those…
Those really popular new coloring books for adults (sounds racier than it is) could make for some lovely Valentine art work, as well! I think they’re mostly intended as stress-management (a form of active meditation,?) but a lot of them are beautiful! Maybe I’ll try that.
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