(Posted 27/12/06)
Self-expression at the heart of unique artistic creation
By Fred Sherwin
Orléans Online

One of Roxanne Brousseau-Felio’s hand-crafted journals entitled “Beauty and Harmony” is currently being featured among 50 works of art from around the world on CNN.com’s State of the Art web page. File photo

As the director of Youth Knowledge Management Inc. Roxanne Brousseau-Felio has been mentoring young people for the past eight years. As part of the process she gives each student a hand made journal to encourage them to keep exploring the craft of self-expression.

The cover of each journal is handcrafted using clay, inlaid small gem stones, feathers and other materials to resemble a mythical face.

“It’s a creative tool for brainstorming and both an intellectual and emotional outlet. It can be inner or outer focused, either way it’s an opportunity to create your own living history,” says Brousseau-Felio who has kept a series of journals since she was just six years old. “It’s very moving when students want to show you their journal and how much they treasure it.”

Not long ago the Rockland resident was browsing the CNN website when she say an article entitled “The Globalization of Art Through Technology” and learned that CNN was inviting people to send in their art work, so she sent them one of her journals. A few days later she was watching CNN Headline News when the phone rang.

“It was a woman’s voice and she said, ‘This is CNN...” At first I didn’t believe her and then she said out of the hundreds of submissions they received from around the world mine journal was one of 50 that was going to be featured on their website,” says Brousseau Felio. “I told her that once I hung up the phone I would scream and then I would cry and that her call was tremendously inspiring to me.”

After hanging up the phone she did exactly what she thought she would do and then she went to the CNN website to see it for herself.

Since having her journal posted on the website’s State of the Art page, Brousseau-Felio has received several e-mails from people all over the world commending her work. The number of hits on her own website have also gone up.

Since the good news she donated one of her journals to the Women Moving Foward organization which used it as door prize during it’s “Pay it Forward” dinner.

In the last week she’s been inspired to create two more journals which can be seen on at www.YKM.ca.

People can order their own custom made journal by contacting Brousseau-Felio at info@ykm.ca. The cost of each journal is dependent on the size, design, materials and time involved.

(This story was made possible thanks to the generous support of our local business partners.)

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