The Creative Arts Institute is offering visual art and photography classes and a creative writing workshop for mental health clients.
 
 
The visual art classes will be conducted by Eric March and will be held on Tuesdays from 6 - 9:00pm.
 
Eric’s class will focus on the development of drawing skills, composition, and color. Throughout the semester we will practice and explore different ways of achieving these goals, including drawing from still life, a self-portrait, critically examining artworks by the masters, and developing individual works for a class show at the end of the semester. We will work in pencil, charcoal, and watercolor. All levels are welcome-this class can serve as a great introduction to the world of art or help current artists hone their craft.

Eric’s feature portraits are currently on Broadway in the sets of Grey Gardens and Old Acquaintance. These pieces were commissioned especially for those productions. His work is also currently at the Gensler NY in Rockefeller Center, through October 15.
 
Eric has a BFA at Indiana University and has been featured in group shows in Manhattan. He studied privately with Andy Reiss and at the Art Students League. In 2005 Eric spent the year painting outside, preparing a la prima cityscapes of Brooklyn for a solo show of his paintings, A Brooklyn Year, at Park Slope Gallery at the end of 2006. He is currently exploring new approaches to portraiture and the figure in the urban landscape.

To see more of his work, you can visit his website, www.ericmarch.com.
For more information and fees and to register for this class you can contact Eric at art@ericmarch.com or at 718 261 0628
 
 
The writing workshops will be led by Karen Gormandy and will be held on Thursdays from 6 - 9pm. The class will explore narrative technique through works of creative-non fiction, fiction and poetry. We will explore a variety of methods by breaking down selected pieces of writing and discussing why they work and how we as writers can find the writing technique that is best suited for us. We will learn how to read like a writer and how to incorporate that knowledge in our own poetry, short story, essay, play, screenplay or performance piece.
 
The class will be structured as a collaborative and the first class will incorporate a discussion on the final group project.
 
 
Karen Gormandy has a film degree from Montana State University --- her first year instructor, (a man who so much resembled Santa Claus that he played Santa’s double in a Coca -Cola commercial! ) told her--- “If you want to call your self a writer, you have to write.“ She hasn’t stopped since. She has written a screenplay, short stories and is now completing a memoir. She was the curator of a writing series at the Cornelia Street Cafe and studied technique at the Writer's Studio in Greenwich Village. She has been a literary agent and is now pursuing a masters degree in creative writing at Manhattanville College.
 
For more information and fees and to register for the writing workshop you can contact Karen at karengormandy@yahoo.com or 212 567-6108
 
The photography workshops will be led by Laurel Carpenter, and will be held on Thursdays from 6-9 PM.  The class will focus on the development of beginning photography skills.  The class will focus on basic skills such as composition and exposure, and will review the work of well-known photographers in order to help participants develop their own unique vision of seeing the world through the lens.  Participants will each be given a disposable camera in order to practice their skills, and will be shown how to operate both a digital and a film camera provided by the instructor for demonstration purposes.  The class will include field trips to various locales to shoot.  Participants will have the opportunity to prepare work for a class show.
 
Laurel Carpenter has an MSW from Columbia University , and has taken photography classes with Adam Eidelberg and Saul Robbins.  She has exhibited and sold work in the Washington Heights Art in the Garden show during 2005 and 2007. 
 
 For more information and fees and to register for this class you can contact Laurel Carpenter at laurel_carpenter@mac.com or at 917-923-5036.