by Tiffany Teng

Every Tuesday, Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK) hosts A-Team meetings, led by Susan Darley. The artists who hail from Trenton come to paint, draw, and create art in a relaxed yet energized atmosphere. With the A-Team, Susan states, “Art comes first.”

A-Team artists are passionate about the art of expression. One artist has been coming to A-Team gatherings for years. Frankie Mack makes abstract pieces that incorporate colorful paints to unearth revolving images of faces, homes, stripes and shapes. He is inspired by music – he describes the experience as, “I can get what I want,” and not “I take what I can get.” A number of Mack’s pieces have been sold, another way the A-Team and TASK collaborate to help these patrons.

Another artist’s name is Brooke Beatty. She makes dolls and model houses, paints, draws, writes poetry and sings Vast I Am, a musical group at TASK. Art has been a constant in her life, ever since her own talented mother taught her to sew and utilize patterns to piece together beautiful quilts.

Art has personality. And because the A-Team does not promote a competitive atmosphere, the authentic creations are made with joy and derive from pure inner vision. Each artist is self-taught, and none of the artists wish to deceive or copy from another. After years of despair, suffering and pain, their voices beg to be heard and their hearts soar with the expressionism art provides for them.

Forgetting the past takes heaps of courage and they are unafraid to be dependent on one another for support. Without this empowering community that meets two hours a week, the artists would not release their emotions and frustration in creation.

This article originally appeared in the Fall 2011 edition of The Wall Newspaper.