BACKUP FINE ARTIST MICHAEL ODYSSEUS YAKOUMAKIS IN HIS STUDIES IN ART THERAPY

ABSTRACT: Help an artist at his sixties to fund his first year of tertiary studies for becoming a practising Art-Therapist. This way you will not only be helping a senior to continue being a creative, active and useful member of society, moreover, you will be helping all those people in need of psycho-therapeutic support, whom this future Art-Therapist will succour and help to heal and flourish, during the next two decades.

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Dear prospective supporter,

I am a visual artist. With a very long career in the visual arts, serving as painter, illustrator, comic designer, visual arts teacher. I just used the term" serving", instead of "working" because for me, creating and teaching Art is not merely "a job", "one more way to earn a living"... Neither do I limit my perception of Art to "a means of self-expression" and of "introspective self-analysis". For me, Art is all that and far more!
After some decades as a visual artist and art teacher I have realised that Art is not only about the self , but mostly about the whole, a bridge of communication with my fellow humans, a means to help them, to assist them, even to heal them - and my own self along with them. Art for me has acquired, along with all its other dimensions, also those of the social function, the social service , the healer's practice... like the art of the shamans in ancient times! ... and I fervently want to raise my art to this new level, enhancing thus with further humanistic qualities, the meaning I have already given to my life so many years ago when - hardly an adult then - I have dedicated my life to the study of Art.

So, I need to acquire some extra skills for this purpose, I need to study further, to enhance my education. I made a research on available university courses on Art - Therapy and I found the one suitable for me. It has a three-year duration.

Some, conventionally-thinking, people of my social circle offered their - unsolicited - opinion: "You are already sixty-five years old, you'll get pensioned in two years time, what on earth will you do this for? What actual good is this going to do to you or to others? Besides, after a certain age one needs to consider eventual health issues. You are not young any more to tax your organism with the efforts of further studying and working! Are you not tired?"...
Conventionally thinking as I said. But I have never thought and lived conventionally in my life. Perhaps that is why I am still healthy and strong as a bull, sharp-minded as a wolf, light as bird, agile as a cat. I burst with creativity, I enjoy life, I feel having at least twenty - if not much more - good, active, creative years in front of me.

"What actual good will come of it" they said! What about all those people I know I will help as an Art-Therapist? Help them to know themselves, to clear their souls, to heal eventually, to flourish?
In particular, I aspire in treating children and adolescents with Asperger's syndrome. I am diagnosed with it myself. Among my art-pupils, there are some "Aspies", like me. Even though I'm not a trained therapist yet, I have managed to contribute in their dealing with the Syndrome through my Art-teaching alone because, being one of them, I know how to approach them. Imagine how much more I'll be able to help my fellow "Aspies" as a trained Art - Therapist!
Another group of people I aspire to help as an Art - Therapist are refugee children and adolescents. In Greece refugees are continuously flowing in and several of them underaged and unaccompanied. Volunteers (organisations and single citizens) are trying their best to help and there's great demand for psychotherapists. I would like to become useful in this regard too.

Summarising, by becoming an Art - Therapist I'll remain active, creative and productive through my "senior years" , I'll enhance my Art, I'll be useful to my fellow humans. Any obstacles to overcome for fulfilling my dream? Actually, there are, financial obstacles:
I live in Greece, a country with a heavily depressed economy during the last twelve years or so, and things do not appear to get any better. No matter how hard I try (along with most of my fellow Greeks) my income is limited, I have a family to support and my child's college tuition and bills and taxes and social insurance to pay for, each month. Paying for my own university tuition fees on top of all that becomes unfeasible. Should I give up my dream after all?
Not necessarily! One last resort there exists: Regardless of my straight finances, my tuition fees are not objectively too high. 2500 € for the first year and 1500 € per year for the second and third years. If I manage to get crowd-funded for the first year, I can meet the remaining 3000 € expense for the next two years by spreading it over the total three-year duration of my studies.

So I appeal to my fellow-humans at this point. I attempt to show them that by contributing to fund my first year of studies, they will not only be helping an artist to fulfil his dream of becoming an Art-Therapist and remain a creative and active member of society through his "senior-citizen years". Moreover, they will be helping all those people in need of psycho-therapeutic support, whom this future Art-Therapist will succour and help to heal and flourish, during the next two decades.

Thank you for your time and patience
Michael Odysseus Yakoumakis

/************ THIS CROWD-FUNDING'S PERKS ************/
You may choose perks between free art-lessons (in person or via web), free art-therapy sessions (in person or via web), and several artworks (paintings and drawings) of mine.

PERK - ARTWORK CATALOGUES

PERKS 1
PERKS 2
PERKS 3
PERKS 4

IMPORTANT NOTICE: All artwork - perks will be shipped AFTER the end of this crowd - funding campaign, on January 31, 2022. Handling and shipment are paid by the addressee.

/************ SOME EXTRA DATA ON ME ********/

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