Art Program

The Art Program is taught by Lesia Sochor, professional artist, teacher, and children’s book illustrator. Each week, Farm House resident teens spend an afternoon exploring and creating artwork through a variety of media. Students learn techniques such as drawing and painting, scratchboard, mosaic, print-making and yarn. The natural world and its seasons, personal experience and imagination guide teens in creating original mixed-media pieces. Projects include mask-making, yarn painting and weaving, Ukrainian egg decorating, and Chinese painting with traditional bamboo paintbrushes and ink. One ongoing project is a mural painting on the walls of the recreation hall. Each student chooses a theme or group of images and, in the process of working through the subject matter, leaves their imaginative contribution in the space for present and future residents to enjoy.

Lesia is personally dedicated to the creative and explorative process of art. The art program also has a definite healing component. Art therapy involves creative self-expression to help resolve conflicts and problems, develop interpersonal skills, manage behavior, reduce stress, increase self-esteem and self-awareness, and achieve insight. This practice integrates the fields of human development, visual art, and the creative process with models of counseling and psychotherapy. As students master new media and techniques, they gain insight into themselves and the outer world. In time they may realize that they can shape their own life with the same thought, care and imagination they devote to a singular work of art.

Lesia Socher is a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Art. She has shown her work in galleries throughout New England and Upper New York State. She, along with three other artists, founded the first gallery in Belfast, Maine, back in 1979: "The Art Fellows." It generated an outlet for a multitude of creative works for close to a decade.

Lesia was also co-founder and director of The Art Annex, a studio school for youth and adults in Belfast, Maine, during the mid- to late-1990’s. She has recently illustrated two children’s books with Down East Publications, The Cat of Strawberry Hill and A Moose’s Morning, which came out in the fall of 2006. Through an exploratory approach, using various mediums and subject matters, Lesia hopes to elevate the students’ awareness into new ways of seeing and expose them to the infinite possibilities of creative expression.

Ironwood Residential Treatment Center Unveils Behind The Mask: Into the Mind of a Modern Teen
Presented by Ironwood Residential Treatment Center in Maine, Behind The Mask is a collection of experimental arts created by teens from all over the country. This exhibition proudly made its debut on January 10, 2008 at The New York Public Library's Muhlenberg Branch, located on 23rd Street near Seventh Avenue in Manhattan. The exhibit was on display until March 31, 2008. As part of the installation, 30 masks were on display, each a product of the art therapy component employed by Ironwood Residential Treatment Center.