“The Art of Mental Health,” an art exhibit made entirely by mental health practitioners, celebrated its opening Saturday at the Vine Arts Center in Minneapolis. 

Multimedia works are on display from therapists, students and retired psychologists who submitted several works for judgment by co-curators and psychologists, Thrace Soryn and Kasia Cymerman. Artists found out which of their works were selected when they arrived to hang their art prior to the opening.

A clinical psychologist and self-taught fiber artist, Cymerman said she wanted to bring people in the field together by sharing their art with one another and the public.

“Our work is so individual, it’s so isolating,” retired psychologist and painter Helen Gilbert said.

Gilbert took up painting when she retired in 2010 at the age of 71. She wanted to do something creative since she was no longer working at her private practice.

She might be painting instead of psychoanalyzing these days, but Gilbert said she is still just as much of a psychologist. That is why she focuses on painting portraits. 

“People are my great interest, that’s what psychologists are all about,” she said. 

Cymerman said she wanted “The Art of Mental Health” to be a space where mental health professionals could express themselves freely through their artworks and where members of the public could see a more personal side of professional psychology. 

“Art is kind of like an expression of things I don’t necessarily know how to put into words,” social worker and oil painter Emily Christensen said. 

Clinical psychologist and oil painter, Laurie Helgoe said art is like therapy and painting feels like a meditative experience.

“When I paint and I am really trying to render something, it’s the one time I’m really focused on what’s really there,” she said.

Helgoe is an associate professor of clinical psychology at Augsburg University, and she invited four of her doctoral students to participate in the exhibit. She said she never saw their work before the exhibit. 

“The fact that I can go into a gallery and see something I haven’t seen before is exciting,” Helgoe said. 

Some artists intertwine their art and profession, like Mindy Benowitz, a psychologist and multimedia artist who said her “Watering the Heart Root” project is focused on sharing advice for healing, much like her clinical work. She said the project is centered around music made of short prayers and affirmations.

A psychologist for over 35 years, Benowitz said her experience with “The Art of Mental Health” has been inspiring and hopeful. She said the other artists and herself took a risk by showing their work and revealing themselves. 

“It would make me happy to have them experience the creativity and meaning in the show, and my contribution to it,” she said. 

“The Art of Mental Health” is on view at the Vine Arts Center in Minneapolis on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. until March 22. Additional showings will be held on March 1, 8, 15 and 22.