RWB Workshops

Rewrite Beautiful kicked off National Eating Disorder Awareness Week by holding a School Programs at Ensign Jr.High School. Founder, Irvina Kanarek, Creative Director and Founder spoke in the Life Skills classes of Mr. Tucker and Mrs.Wagner. The students heard an eating disorder recovery story, the physical trauma of eating disorders, participated in a Q&A panel and the opportunity to Rewrite Beautiful about themselves!

Then we headed over to Costa Mesa High School to talk with the Cheerleaders! There our Board Member, Robyn Baker joined us to share her own recovery story with the group. The group had great questions to ask Robyn about the disease and her recovery. 

We finished off the week with a Street Art Workshop! The workshop was led by another wonderful Board Member, Sunny Siu, MFA! He taugh the workshop using recycled CD's and CD covers as materials! Everyone left knowning where their Creativity, Kindness and Strength lie! 

We were stoked to put the Street Art up in front of Newport Harbor High School and have their students also continue our mission to Rewrite Beautiuful! 

To see more photo's of our celebration of NEDAwareness week check out our Facebook page HERE! 

A few Saturday’s ago Rewrite Beautiful had the opportunity to go work with The Victorian – Eating Disorder Treatment and Sober Living by the Sea and work with the clients there. We brought a unique Street Art Project that the women would find relevant to their own lives and recovery. The ages of the women ranged from 18 to 40 so we took this opportunity to bust out some spray paint!

Lots of supplies!

We were joined by the lovely Janna Price, who shared her journey to eating disorder recovery earlier this year with the Orange County Register. In the workshop Janna shared her experience with an eating disorder and what the process of using art to ‘rewrite’ beautiful for herself means to her.

Workshop participant on floor and Janna Price on the right participating in our workshop

 We then transitioned into the workshop led by our Street Art Workshop Leader, Sunny Siu. (We love men who love to Rewrite Beautiful! Yeah!)

Sunny Siu, Street Art Workshop Leader

Sunny led the women in a creative exploration called, ‘Mind Mapping’. In the process the women had the opportunity to see how one thought can stem into another very quickly.  

Afterward we moved into the Street Art. The Street Art was an extension of the mind mapping the women started with, but shaped around this symbol:

These heart-feet icon symbolizes the journey to recovery or rewriting of beauty – it is a partnership that will be shared among trusted friends/family members and loved ones. Together, steps will be made, fear will be conquered, heart will be mended and love will amplify.

We provided 3, 6 foot by 3 foot wood panels for the women to explore their beliefs around BEAUTY, RECOVERY and VICTORY.

BEAUTY

RECOVERY

VICTORY

All of the women in the workshop suffered from some kind of addiction. Whether it was alcoholism, drugs or an eating disorder, but not everyone suffered from all of them. Being able to watch the women read each others writings and gain insight into another persons struggle was moving.

Workshop participant

Later we transitioned outside to allow the women to creatively express themselves with paint on the back of the panels.

Rewriting Beautiful on the back of the panels

To see the entire workshop please view the slideshow below:

[slideshow]

This workshop was a huge success. We were able to Rewrite Beautiful with some very brave and courageous women in recovery. We thank them for letting us be apart of their journey. I would  like to give a very special thanks to our beautiful volunteers:

*April Burkhart * Janna Price * Robyn Baker * Sunny Siu *

BEAUTIFUL Volunteers: Robyn Baker, Janna Price, April Burkhart and Sunny Siu

We couldn’t have pulled off this workshop without you! Thank you for donating your BEAUTIFUL selves to this cause and helping to prevent and stop eating disorders!

Keepin’ it Beautiful,

Irvina

Hey Beautiful friends!

Lots of workshops in the month of September! We’re stoked to also announce that Rewrite Beautiful is partnering with the California State University, Fullerton's  WoMen's Center! Yeah! Rewrite Beautiful will be leading a Street Art Workshop on Tuesday, September 20th from 12pm to 1:30pm. We will be discussing our message that," Beautiful actually has nothing to do with the way you LOOK; it has to do with the way you ACT. Beauty is found in your actions of Creativity, Kindness and Strength displayed in your community. You can either go along with what everyone else thinks is beautiful, or you can be revolutionary and Rewrite Beautiful." The Street Art will be made with this theme in mind.

Everyone (man/boy/woman/girl/child and seeing eye dog) is welcomed to come and learn about Rewrite Beautiful, Street Art and eating disorders. *The Street Art will be displayed in the CSUF Quad at 1:15pm. To RSVP to the Street Art Workshop please see the Facebook invite HERE.

And If you’d like to help us promote the Street Art Workshop at CSUF and want one of our AWESOME T-Shirts for FREE be sure to email: Irvina@rewritebeautiful.org for details on how to get one!

Keepin’ it Beautiful!

Irvina

A few weeks ago Rewrite Beautiful was invited to join Redemption Church at ‘Party on the Block’. Party on the Block is a ministry of Redemption that goes to Shalimar Street in Costa Mesa, CA and literally brings church to about 50 at-risk kids and families. The usual ‘party routine’ Redemption hosts is lunch, a bible story teaching and fun! Bringing Rewrite Beautiful into the mix made things a little different for everyone. So we whipped out our spray can of CREATIVITY and got crackin’!

* Rewrite Beautiful is not a ‘Christian organization’ but, quite a few of our volunteers are big fans of Mr.Jesus….hmmmm….

Creative Solution: We decided to do this Street Art Workshop around the Bible Story of Esther. Which would still give the kiddo’s their Sunday Bible story AND get to hear the Rewrite Beautiful message that beauty is in your Creativity, Kindness and Strength!

*Rewrite Beautiful USUALLY uses Street Art in all of our workshops, but when kids create something they want to take it home….hmmm….

Creative Solution: So many Rewrite Beautiful Workshop participants rave about how amazing it is to make Street Art and know that their art is going to be seen by tons of people. However, since the whole point of Rewrite Beautiful is to CHANGE how YOU see beauty in yourself we thought the message would sink in more for the kids if they got to take something home. Therefore we created masks: “Fake Masks.” The masks played into the story of Esther and how she was ‘fake’ about who she was. We had the kids draw on the masks their ‘fake self’ who they really aren’t but act like, (For example: Hitting their sister, stealing, cussing. This isn’t who they were created to be.) Then we had the kids take off their “fake selves” and reveal their ‘true BEAUTIFUL selves’ in a mirror. It was EPIC!  The kids REALLY got it.

*Rewrite Beautiful usually had everyone collaborate on ONE piece of art, but we have 50 kids….hmmm….

Creative Solution: In order to save time and precious money from our donors we decided to Go Green! And create masks out of old cereal boxes.

It was a long process, but it was totally worth it to watch the kids write/draw about their ‘fake self’ and reveal their ‘true BEAUTIFUL selves’

Rewriting Beautiful on Shalimar Street

Creativity is Beautiful :)

Our Street Art Workshop Leader Sunny Siu even made a mask of his ‘fake self”. He’s a pretty strong guy underneath though.

Sunny Siu, Street Art Workshop Leader

Thank you Sunny and Michelle! You're BEAUTIFUL!

He lead an amazing workshop with Michelle McCormick. Check back soon for more pictures from this awesome workshop! And don’t forget to Go Green! And Keep it BEATUIFUL!

Irvina