I plan to share photos that tell a story or random everyday moments for a greater cause. I will upload at least 5 photos per week via email. My name is Adinah Sandy and I love helping, serving and inspiring others! That’s why every year I join Arts for asylum seekers so I can help strangers live a better life. I am also passionate about photography so it’s perfect for me using what I love to help others. 

Instagram: @adinahsphotographyas

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I will be sharing art three to four times a week through e-mail. I work with spiritual symbolism and animal symbolism. I use a variety of different mediums including painting, colored pencils, and occasionally wood burning. I usually include a brief write-up of my thought process that lead to the pieces I share. I'm on a spiritual journey so whatever ideas, animals, or symbols appear along my path will be reflected in my art.

I will be doing a range of visual art: whittling, painting, drawing and photography. These are all things that interest me. I will send out my work once a week by email. I'm a kid who likes visual arts and the outdoors.

My work will draw on my professional background in early childhood and elementary education which includes a special focus on conflict resolution, as well as my personal experience as a parent and grandparent. My three times a week emails will include strategies that I have found effective in addressing typical family problems such as chores, bedtime, and other transition issues for children, as well as strategies for escalated emotions and conflicts. Some of the strategy sharing will be done via cartoon attachments that illustrate how to respond differently than a traditional disciplinary approach.

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Website: www.kidsandconflict.com

I will spend the month of April researching and practicing ancient ways of working with fiber to make functional items using traditional and non-traditional materials. Netting, basketry, and rope are all examples of things that humans and our predecessors made from bast fibers and animal hides that contributed to the development of our civilizations. We all share this creative bond and it is my belief that when we meditate on the ways that we are all connected, we build bridges and are more inclined to care for one another, rather than deny people respect and empathy. ​

In a weekly email, sponsors will receive: 

~ updates about my efforts 

~ links to writing I do about the process of learning these new-to-me skills 

~ a list of resources that I find helpful in case you want to try any of these techniques yourself

~ when possible, video instructions on how to do something that I am trying- essentially a micro-tutorial!

What about the things I make? Will they be available?

I am not sure what will be made yet! I will update sponsors on this as pieces are made throughout the process. If items do sell, all proceeds will be donated to CASAN. 

I aim to have at least four physical pieces of work to show by the end of April that will be used as examples for teaching.

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Website: www.healinghandcrafting.com

Instagram: @healinghandcrafting

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Emotional Support Chicken - I will knit a soft stuffed animal chicken. Using email, I will send weekly updates as I knit, assemble, and stuff the chicken.

As a budding bird and wildlife photographer, I am excited so share some photos and the some of the stories behind them. I will share two or three photos per week via email. I have always enjoyed being in nature and took up birding when I was in my 30s. Now that I am semi retired, I have had more time to get outside and enjoy all that nature has to offer. Once I starting taking photos of birds and wildlife, my passion took off. I look forward to sharing my passion and supporting this important cause.

I am a scroll saw artist and I will be creating a new project each week to share via email. I plan to start by making candle holders and will get input from supporters into projects for the weeks to follow. I plan to send a mid week update with how the project is going. All projects will be for sale to benefit CASAN! I learned wood working in middle school and from my dad. I'm lucky to live in my childhood home and create in my dad's old woodshop. I'm inspired to create to make gifts for people I love and to support causes that are meaningful to me, like CASAN. I experience a lot of joy when I'm creating a new project, especially on the scroll saw.

The Making of an Audiobook - I just published my first novel, and I’m ready to create an audiobook version. Want to join me as I learn how to make my very first audiobook? Each week you'll receive two emails: 1) a newly recorded chapter of my science-fiction murder mystery, Murder by Algorithm, and 2) a written reflection on the process and what I’ve learned along the way. Douglas Beagley is a reader, author, technical writer, and a certain slant of light on winter afternoons.

Website: https://beagley.blog

I plan to create a piece or pieces based on my favorite quote (one that seems relevant for those seeking asylum): "They tried to bury us; they didn't know we were seeds." I paint in acrylic and mixed media. My vision is a painting or multiple paintings on canvas that include text and flowers. I live in Fletcher, Vermont with my husband and two children. I have been an artist ever since I can remember, and have been selling my work since I was 18 years old. However, I recently took the leap to make art my full-time job. I was inspired to join this project to be a source of love, light and hope, in a country and world that can feel like it is being overtaken with hate, darkness and despair. This is a way to merge my creative talents with a way to provide some help to those who need it.

Website: http://elizabethcleary.com 

Instagram: @elizabethclearyart

I'm going to write a serial comic, and share its "chapters" once a week with patrons via email!

I want to create multi-layered prints that express joy and the strength in our communities. I will share my work through weekly emails and Instagram posts. Art is a powerful way for us all to process the state of the world. It is most desperately needed in times like these to spread hope and provoke insightful thoughts. I am driven to speak out through my art against injustice and hopefully inspire others to act. We must protect our communities and neighbors. No one is illegal on stolen land!

Instagram: @we_are_one_tattoos_n_stuff

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I will be creating four handmade books and sharing photos and description of the process with my sponsors. For this project I will be trying out four book construction methods that are new to me. I will post updates on a blog once a week, or will send them directly to sponsors' email if they prefer. I'm a librarian who enjoys bookbinding as a hobby.

I enjoy playing around with watercolors. Watching the colors move, mix and flow together is relaxing to create. I am learning how to master this medium and always learning more. The subjects I paint are usually landscapes around Vermont or things around our home. My watercolor paintings will arrive to you in emails about 3 times a week. I’d love any feedback from you of which projects you like or suggestions. Thank you for your support to Chittenden Asylum Seekers Assistance Network. Now more than ever, your support is welcomed.

I plan to carve and print a 4"x6" woodblock print every week. I often make protest postcards inspired by creative protest posters, and will share the finished prints with anyone who wants a postcard. I will share the digital version of my work via email. My interest in art began at a young age and was encouraged by my family of creative thinkers. I draw inspiration from beauty in the natural world, and utilize printmaking to confront social and environmental issues. I carve my original designs out of Shina plywood and print them using oil based inks on archival printmaking paper. I use a handheld barren to press my images from wood block to paper, making my printing process completely by hand.

Website: www.armstrongartisans.com 

I plan on posting my art such as poetry, or music twice a week on a private Instagram page and also via directly emailing my sponsors. Kareem Daniel Ryce is a Caribbean creative who channels healing and resilience through music, poetry, and video storytelling. Blending rhythm, spoken word, and cinematic editing, he transforms real experiences into powerful visual narratives of identity, struggle, faith, and hope. For his sponsors, Kareem shares honest, intentional art rooted in the perspective of Trinidad and Tobago. 

​This year I will be working on two different projects during the month of April. The first, similar to last year's CASAN project, will be a nature blog tracking the changing of the season here in northwestern Vermont and beyond. It will include photographs and descriptions of my findings. I also plan to put my nature photography to a new use, creating a prototype for a children's game set based on Concentration (also known as Memory), in which each player turns over two cards at a time to try and find a match. The first set of images will be of local wildflowers and it will be geared for play at different levels: exact matches for the youngest players, with more sophisticated matching challenges (e.g. plants shot at different stages of development or from different angles) for an older cohort. I will share the creative process as I choose images and develop the materials.

Works of Conviction - Centering, centering, centering, akin to prayer: Clay is my medium; I throw on the wheel. Last year's development of No-ware-- "no" in world languages incised on a mug-- has expanded to Yes-ware, "yes" in world languages. Of course, these, custom-designed, do not preclude other forms. I'll keep in touch by email, polling my sponsors as to frequency. Breviloquence is my most newly acquired word. The trauma and resilience of refugee status is in my DNA though I was spared so far in my generation. I take the responsibility to heart and am grateful to have a way to ply my craft for CASAN where the need has grown exponentially over the last year.​

Stories in Paint - Immigration as Human Rights will be a weekly painting project created that centers immigration and asylum as human rights. Each week, I create one painting focused on a specific right, such as safety, family unity, or the right to seek asylum. I will share the painting process and the meaning behind each piece on the Patchwork Planet YouTube channel as the work unfolds. Patchwork Planet is dedicated to teaching about human rights through art. Sponsors will receive a brief weekly email with an image of the work, a short reflection on the right being explored, and a link to the video update. I am an artist and a human rights advocate and the co-founder of Patchwork Planet, a multidisciplinary arts and advocacy initiative rooted in human rights and community care. My work is shaped by years of engagement with refugee resettlement, asylum advocacy, and creative education, as well as by a belief in art as a form of witness and education. Stories in Paint — Immigration as Human Rights is inspired by the lived realities of people seeking safety and dignity, and by the conviction that these experiences must be seen and named as human rights rather than political abstractions. Through painting and shared process, I am to make immigration and human rights visible and better understood.

Website: https://www.patchworkplanet.org/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Patchwork-Planet

Website: https://www.darlaluz.com/

Every week I lead several writing groups on zoom in which participants write together from prompts that I suggest. The groups are for people with cancer, women, and the newest group -- Jewish women in Vermont. We go deep and it's a wonderful way to connect. Some of the groups started in person and have morphed onto zoom but our closeness has not been compromised. I will share one writing per week generated in one of my weekly groups. I'll share it by email.

Website: www.mermaidpamela.com

The Fascinating Forest and the Fungus - During the month of April we will make many forays into the beautiful nearby forests. We hope to capture in photographs, videos, and music the fascinating forest wonders: the trees, flowers, ferns, mosses, and, of course, the fungus. This year, for Arts for Asylum Seekers, Evergreen Erb will provide music from her Celtic Harp for the video soundtracks. For CASAN's Arts for Asylum Seekers fundraiser we will produce at least one video for each week of April that will highlight the most fascinating forest wonders. We will deliver a new video each week to our sponsors by emailing a link to a cloud service like Dropbox. Please consider making an affordable donation to our fundraising page and please pass the word along to friends, family, and associates.

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​Each week in April, we’ll record a song together and send it to our sponsors through email. We’ll focus on songs with themes of love, hope, and resilience in hard times. We find so much solidarity and inspiration in singing and playing music together as a family and with our community, and we think this a wonderful opportunity to share some of that with others while contributing to this organization.

Every day I wake up and I'm afraid to look at my phone or watch the news, because it's very depressing to see what our country has become. But there is good news out there and I plan to find it and share it, much like I have the past couple of years. I'm calling this year's project Pay It Forward. I'd like to inject some positivity into people's lives. My plan is to share, approximately 3 times a week, through e-mail, a message of positivity, either something original or something other than my own with my own relevant commentary. This is my 3rd year participating as a "Creative" in this campaign. I have been volunteering for CASAN for 5 years and have had the pleasure of working with some amazing families who have come here seeking asylum. I think about my own grandfather coming here from Ireland alone at the age of 16 and starting a new life that led to generations of college graduates, successful business professionals, skilled workers, and entrepreneurs. All because he took the risk to come to America and start a new life.

Currently things are looking dark for both asylum seekers and all the rest of us. That said, I see a lot of positive energy going out to push back against oppression of those less fortunate. SEEING LIGHT in the darkness will be the focus of this year's project. For the month of April, it will include one e-mailing per day of a photograph of light to remind us to stay aware of what each of us can do to brighten the future. While form, texture and color are the basic elements of composition, light has the potential to evoke feelings like nothing else. As such, it is often the subject of my photography. No matter where I am, light inspires my soul.

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I am creating something that reflects my thoughts on the country, in its current state, as a veteran. I expect to update weekly through email. My family moved to Vermont in 2021 after I separated from the Navy. Art has been a great way for me to cope with the difference between a civilian life and a military life. The country has continued down a dark path since then and I want to use my art to help in any way I can.

Experience quiet moments of Vermont through my watercolor sketches. Empty parking lots, rusted downspouts, golden hour hitting a weathered building. I'll share new work weekly via email, along with thoughts on what I'm learning as I develop this practice. I returned to art in early 2024 after a 20-year break, and it's become essential. I'm a UX designer and father in Underhill Center, learning to see beauty in overlooked places and trying to model to my kids that creative work matters. Your support helps me take this practice to the next level—thank you for being part of the journey.

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