Carol Martin Johnson ’83

She once had a client with severe Alzheimer’s disease who had been an artist earlier in life. During his art therapy sessions with Martin Johnson, he would make large, colorful paintings, but after he left for the day, he’d forget what he had done. Every time he came back, Martin Johnson would show the man his own paintings, sparking his memory and helping him to reconnect with his inner senses of beauty and creativity.

Martin Johnson, an art therapist at the LIFE center in Philadelphia, Pa., recalls the story as an example of an inspiring aspect about art therapy: its focus on what’s right with people, not what’s wrong with them.

“Art taps into people’s strengths. The healthy part,” she says.

At the LIFE center, a day program run by the University of Pennsylvania as an alternative to nursing home care for the elderly, Martin Johnson sees about 30 clients per week in several art therapy groups. Using a variety of different media, people in her classes use art to express, understand and talk about the depression, isolation and grief many of them face, and to remind themselves that it’s never too late to try, to learn, to do something new.

Though Martin Johnson began her career as a nurse, working at various points in rural Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and Uganda, she long felt an urge to put her artistic, creative side to greater use. On her 40th birthday, Martin Johnson began graduate study in art therapy through a program of Drexel University. After completing an internship at the LIFE center and graduating in 2003, she has been working there since.

Her room on an upper floor, overlooking a busy Philadelphia street, is cluttered with paintbrushes, paper, string, glue and dozens of other supplies, but what occurs there is more profound than arts and crafts hour.

Art therapy can give form and shape to difficult feelings, feelings for which there may be no words. It can empower a person to gain understanding of the complex, the hidden, and the mysterious,” Martin Johnson says.

— Andrew Jenner

Darrell and Sylvia Yoder, Both '81 Grads, have taken the small-steps approach toward sustainability in their household in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. When the old oil furnace gave out, the Yoders installed a geothermal heat pump. Other measures: Replacement windows. Better attic insulation. Solar tubes for more natural light. Laundry drying on the line. Cloth grocery bags. One car for the family of four. A big vegetable garden. Says Darrell: “Small steps make a big difference … and (they) make your life richer.”

At the Landis Homes community in Lititz, Pennsylvania, Dr. Richard ’60 and Ruth Slabaugh ’63 Weaver were the first couple to move into one of nearly two dozen cottage homes built with a number of simple green features. These include rain barrels, tubes to let sunlight into dark areas of the house, geothermal heat pumps, and solar-powered attic fans. Richard and Ruth both spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new, sustainability-focused part of the Landis Homes campus. Linford Good ’80, vice president of planning and marketing at Landis Homes, has led the effort to use greener building methods at the retirement community.

In Philadelphia, Carol and Timothy Martin Johnson, both ’82 grads, commute to work by public transportation, bicycles or walking; when they need to drive, they use their trusty old Corolla – 260,000 miles and counting. In January 2011, they put solar panels on the roof of their 100-year-old house, which should provide at least half their electricity. The Johnsons rent out the third floor of their house, attend a church that shares space with five other congregations, and allow an urban beekeeper to keep two hives in their back yard. The sharing and interdependence that accompany urban living, Carol writes, present “challenges, but also endless creative possibilities in which we find much joy!”

“There are a lot of little things that each one of us can do in our own homes to save the planet,” wrote Martha Ann Burgard ‘66, of Gadsen, Alabama, in a letter describing the simple things she’s done in her own home. In condensed form:

Clean with white vinegar and baking soda, because they work  as well as toxic chemicals. Use a clothesline. White metal roofs reflect more sunlight and keep a house cooler. Heat with a wood stove. Wear a hat. Bundle up. Invest in a down comforter. Shop at thrift stores and yard sales. Repurpose old things. Try treating ailments with home remedies. Compost. Mulch. Turn your lawn into a wildflower meadow. Collect rainwater for the garden. Grow your own food. Buy local produce. Cook in bulk, divide into meal-sized portions, freeze for later. Avoid processed food. Buy eggs in cardboard cartons, not styrofoam, because cardboard is a good fire starter and is compostable. Don’t dry-clean clothes. If you can’t wash it, you don’t want it. Make bags and purses from fabric scraps. Use some. Give some away as gifts. Volunteer. Teach middle-schoolers how to build birdhouses.

Says Burgard: “This is the civilized way to live, in harmony with nature, not fighting it, not destroying it, but enjoying it, communing with it.”