Mental Health Arts Festival

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2018
11:00 AM  3:00 PM
Please join us for a fantastic day of paintings, drawings, sculpture, jewelry, music, and poetry!

Location: De La Guerra Plaza

Free admission

Bridget Hochman designed this year’s logo for the Mental Wellness Center’s annual Art Festival. The logo has summer vibes with beautiful florals. The strong and inspiring word HOPE is placed on a deep ocean blue background.

The art festival is a place where individuals living with mental illness can come and present their work for exhibit and for sale to the Santa Barbara community. It’s a great way to spend a Saturday and a wonderful opportunity to buy with a purpose. The festival is planned by Darcy Keep and hosted by the Mental Wellness Center. 

Bridget has been drawing since a young child using whatever art supplies were available. “My first watercolor painting was of the gazebo at Alice Keck Park. I actually sat on a bench at the park and painted it outdoors, but now I prefer to work inside and use photos of my subject matter as a reference.” When asked what her style is she replied, “My style is a combination of watercolor and digital; I always scan my paintings into the computer and work on them with Photoshop.” 

At the art festival you will find a variety of art from jewelry, drawings, greeting cards, greenery arrangements, sculptures and more! The day is full of smiles, inspiration, and a sense of accomplishment. For many of the artists creativity has been an instrumental outlet for their health. “I have always been very shy and creating art has given me a way to express myself. I chose watercolor because it is challenging and I love the transparent quality of the paint on the watercolor paper. Watercolor has also taught me patience because I must wait for the paint to completely dry before painting a new section,” expresses Bridget. 

The art festival is a positive way for individuals with a mental illness to integrate with the Santa Barbara Community. 

As Santa Barbara County is recovering from natural disasters this year’s natural disasters, hope is vitally important and a perfect theme for the festival.  Bridget says “I chose the word “HOPE” because I wanted people in our community to feel hopeful for the future after the Thomas Fire and mudslides in Montecito. I decided to make the letters big enough so that I could put an image inside each letter. For the first three images I chose plants native to this area: palm trees, a sunflower, and a bird of paradise. For the last image I chose white candles to remember those we have lost. The white candles can also symbolize healing and new beginnings. I chose to make the background different shades of blue, colors that reminded me of the ocean.”