Our January 2021 Zoom Aperitivo will be about healing and the arts. We have five special guests, experts in using the arts for healing, lined up to bring their perspectives on how the arts and acts of creation influence our well-being. Here is some more information about each guest.
About Claudette Gamache
Painting has been second nature for Claudette since the age of 9. Although she followed a career as a registered nurse, her passion always remained in the arts where her soul was nurtured. As an older student, she received her BFA from the University of Hartford. Seeing the value of the arts at another level led her to pursue her MA at Lesley University in Expressive Arts Therapies and Holistic Studies and later became a registered art therapist. She spent many years weaving the creative arts with modern medicine where she helped her clients and staff decrease stress, reduce pain and encourage wellness. Her belief is that nature is the great healer and she wants her paintings to communicate this experience.
About Richard Osler
Richard has worn many hats in his career. Life that has led him from business journalism with the Financial Post, to financial analysis, money management and back to words as a poet and as a facilitator of poetry workshops and retreats. He recognized the power of words and began hosting poetry workshops where people recognized the power of Richard to inspire them to write and to recognize their own power through words. Someone who attended one of his first workshops, invited him to her recovery center to work with recovering addicts; to introduce them to the riches of poetry and to invite them to write their own poems.
Richard says, “My work in recovery centers has shown me the dramatic healing power of poetry; how it can help people in recovery from addiction recover parts of themselves through their own words.”
About Dr. Raymond Brow
Dr. Raymond Brow is an internal medicine physician with a special interest in geriatrics. Prior to medical school at USC, he received a degree in biophysics from UC Berkeley. He performed his internship and Internal Medicine Residency at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco and has been practicing in San Rafael since 1990. His father was an internist so he grew up around medicine and often went on rounds with him, so going into the medical field was a natural choice for him.
Ray says, “I have always valued my health and enjoy helping others appreciate and improve theirs. I strongly believe that if you give the body what it wants, namely exercise, rest and good nutrition it will usually take care of itself.”
About Erin Gallagher
Erin Gallagher earned her BFA in Illustration at California College of the Arts. After College Erin lived in a Tibetan refugee community in Dharamsala India studying Traditional Thangka painting at the Thangde Gatsal art center. Later she traveled to Italy to study art. She has spent the last seven summers at La Romita, helping out in a myriad of ways. Erin teaches art and is the Artistic Director for the theatrical program at Marin Country Day School. Last year she began working in the props department at Berkeley Repertory Theater. When the pandemic hit Erin was no longer able to work in theater. She delved into her painting practice using this opportunity to make sociopolitical artwork that integrates traditional religious iconography with messages of social justice. She has recently volunteered for the San Francisco Board of Public Health to paint twelve murals on a newly outfitted emergency field hospital in the city.