Artist brightens up playroom for WINGS
Arlington Heights artist Susan Weres is in the midst of painting a restaurant mural, and before that, she painted countless other murals in homes and commercial facilities. But a recent one touched her heart.
Weres volunteered to brighten up the playroom in the WINGS safe house in Mount Prospect. WINGS is an acronym which stands for Women In Need Growing Stronger, and the Palatine-based agency serves victims of domestic abuse, and women at risk of becoming homeless.
Typically, they receive 200 calls a month from local women.
Its Rolling Meadows Safe House opened two years ago, and provides shelter for up to 45 women and children, but the lesser known Mount Prospect home serves as a transitional housing apartment for one family, as well as a training facility where women come to update their skills.
While mothers attend these classes, their children are cared for in a lower level playroom. That's where Weres came in. She says she was struck by the starkness of the room.
"Children are very visual by nature, and the right environment can reduce stress and fears," Weres said. "For a child to play in a safe space, surrounded by color and joyful images, they can allow themselves to be immersed in play and imagination."
Weres created images of children playing, reading and resting, amid a backdrop of rolling hills and a blue sky. Included in the landscape, Weres also designed a magnetic playhouse, with up to 80 painted magnets of people, furniture and pictures, for the children to play with directly on the wall.
"I wanted the children to be able to interact with the mural," Weres said, "but more than that, it's a place where they can create their own safe house."
Weres knows something about children and their imaginations. She is a mother of two herself, and a longtime art teacher. Last spring Weres closed up her classroom after teaching art for 18 years at St. Thomas of Villanova School in Palatine.
She now teaches students privately in her home studio, in between juggling mural commissions.
"I just felt a real calling to this place," Weres said, "knowing the women it serves."