Which Mask is You?

by | Jul 18, 2021 | Visual Arts

We’re happy when our artists are happy! Bonus if our partners and clients are too. So we hit the trifecta earlier this week when our visual artist Sharmila Karamchandani was able to go back onsite at Friends of Guest House. While Zoom classes allowed us to survive the pandemic, it wasn’t the same. We (and all of us) struggled with blurry images, poor connection, not enough cameras at our partner sites, people leaving mid-class because of connectivity, lack of supplies, etc. “What a relief it was to feel that joy again to see all the women face-to-face!” Sharmila wrote on her Facebook page.

To celebrate her return to Friends of Guest House, Sharmila chose one of her (and my) favorite projects – masks. Each of the women made two masks where one side shows what she feels on the inside and the other side shows how she seems on the outside. The women were honest with themselves and put it all on paper, Sharmila said, and they credited Friends of Guest House with helping them to dive deeper and really get to know themselves. Don’t you just love nonprofits? What do you think of their masks?
 

What Mask do you Wear?

by | Mar 3, 2021 | Visual Arts

We all wear masks. We wear masks that reflect who we want to be to the outside world, and we wear masks that we wear only to ourselves. Our amazing art teacher Sharmila led the women of ALIVE! House through this project last night, with such power results! They each shared what their masks represented and gave us permission to share their masks – some of them – with you!

“10 Questions” with Dr. Stephen Haering, Director, City of Alexandria Public Health Office

by | Jul 21, 2020 | Media Coverage, News

Masks! Masks! Masks! Yes, Dr. Stephen Haering, Director of the Alexandria Health Department, and I talked about masks – when to wear them, how to wash them, and what are his favorites! And we talked about a whole lot more during our “10 Questions with Dr. Haering and our follow on “5 More Questions with Dr. Haering.” He’s an interesting guy – his advice to Alexandrians on how to make our community stronger was SO not what I expected from a public health doctor, as was his guest list for his dinner party for six. Take a look!