Sherry and John Discover Encaustic Sherry Ikeda & John Schaeffer
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Sherry :
I started encaustic painting when I was still a practicing psychiatric nurse in California . I spent all day talking to patients , and so my days were filled stories of pain , deep histories of physical , emotional and verbal abuse . I worked to help people on the verge of ending their lives get to a safer place . I read and trained constantly to build my skill set . The concept of “ tools of the mind ” comes from the work of Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky who said “ A child ’ s greatest achievements are possible in play , achievements that tomorrow will become her basic level of real action .” The features of play that support development includes imaginary situations , the roles children act out , and the rules children follow while acting out their pretend scenarios .
I took this to heart for myself , and a s t ro n g m e m o r y f ro m m y childhood drew me back in time to when my sister and I would climb into this tall window in our small boxcar house and perform plays . How freeing that was to become someone else , to try on different roles , to make each other laugh . 2