WASHINGTON. When Karen Pence found out that the art therapist in the destroyed hurricane Puerto Rico could not afford the clay that her clients needed, she came into effect.
A trained watercolor artist and defender of a little-known profession of mental health, the wife of Vice President Mike Pence went to the Virginia Art store, which she often visited when they lived in the state during his stay in Congress, bought 120 pounds of self-destroying clay and packaged him on board the air forces downward to examine the damage.
“She cleaned him,” said Vice President of the store owner.
Mrs. Pence has made art therapy for its reason since she first learned about this more than ten years ago. She visited numerous artistic therapy programs, both in the USA and abroad, and on Wednesday in Florida, for nine months in the administration, she planned to officially announce the goals of her initiative on art therapy.
She wants to help people understand the difference between artistic therapy and art and crafts, and to understand that artistic therapy is a viable option for the treatment of injury, injuries and other life experiments. She also wants to encourage young people to choose art therapy as a career.
“I do not think that many people understand the difference between therapeutic art and artistic therapy,” said Mrs. Pence, a trained watercolor artist, in an exclusive interview before the announcement of Florida at Tallahassi University. The school has a program of artistic therapy, which she called “huge.”
She explained that this could be therapeutic, but this is not the same as the art -therapy that has three elements: a client, a trained therapist and art.
Read more: the wife of the vice president of Pence seeks to increase awareness of artistic therapy
No matter how passionate it is, about increasing the profile of art therapy, other problems also help to make Karen Pence Tick.
One of them helps military families, especially spouses. Her only son, Michael, in the Marine Corps.
There is also her interest in bees. Mrs. Pence established a hive on the basis of the US military -marine observatory, where the official residence of the Vice President is located to help pay attention to the decrease in the colonies of managed bees, which, according to officials, can negatively affect the agricultural production of the United States. She had a hive in the residence of the governor of Indiana for the same reason.
Now is 60 years old, and she has been married to Vice President since 1985, Mrs. Pence has long been considered one of the most reliable political advisers to her husband. They are often found on trips, in the White House or in the observatory, almost always holding hands.
Since returning to Washington in January (the family lived in this area when her husband served in Congress), she accompanied the Vice President for Tours on European, Asia and Latin America, as well as trips to examine the recent hurricane in Texas, Puerto -Riko and the Virgin Islands of the United States. She is trying to visit art therapy programs, wherever she goes. Journalists who travel with a pence often monitor his wife; She often brings them cookies when he returns to the press -salon for small conversations.
Read more: The devastated Puerto -Rico needs unprecedented help, says the governor
She even made a small campaign, urging Virginia to vote next month behind Ed Gillespi in what is considered as a hard governor's race.
“It really matters, I can tell you. No one thought we were going to win, ”she said, an obvious link to Trump-Pent’s ticket.
Vice -President often calls his wife as a “prayer captain” of the family. She headed the communities in prayer during their trips to the hurricane.
“We are people of faith, so we are just trying to approach everything with prayer,” Mrs. Pence said from her solar office on the second floor in the Eisenhower Executive Office in the White House complex, where she and her employees enjoy the desired views on the Washington monument and the Jefferson memorial. The results of artistic therapy, given as gifts, decorate the external office.
She proudly demonstrated several of her paintings, including the “Capitol Dome”, the residence of the vice president, a vase with a conservation ball, a cardinal bird and a pink peony. She turns many of her watercolors into prints and in the boxed cards, which she will give to art therapists she meets.
With the exception of countless pets, including two cats, dogs and a rabbit named Marlon Bundo, Pence Pence Empty Nests. Their son and two adult daughters leave on their own.
“I think that for us this is a good time in our life for this role, because our children left the college. They live their own lives, ”said Mrs. Pence.
She also launches a blog together with an announcement on Wednesday in order to lead the chronicle of her visits to art therapy programs.
