Creativity and Gratitude: Exercises and Inspiration for a Year of Art, Hope, and Healing

(Paperback)

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Embrace your journey. Share your story. Unlock the power of creativity with an artistic prompt for every week of the year. Sometimes life takes a detour. No matter how much we plan, we encounter bumps in the road that can be frustrating, confusing, and unpredictable. Whether it's our health, stress at work or home, or current events, we all c

Reviews

Amy is an inspirational figure to be sure, but her creativity expands well beyond her story.
David Friedman, film and theater composer

Amy is inspiring and surprising, with her consummate, ever-flowing creativity, incredible message of strength and resilience, overwhelming joy and love of life against great odds, and dedication and passion for creative work.
Jeanine Esposito, Founder, Beechwood Arts

Author Bio

Amy Oestreicher is a multidisciplinary creator who overcame a decade of trauma to become a sought-after teaching artist, author, international keynote speaker, RAINN representative, PTSD specialist, and advocate for people with disabilities. She dedicates her work to celebrating untold stories and the detours in life that can spark connections and transform communities, and has given three TEDx Talks on transforming trauma through creativity, which have garnered tens of thousands of views, and shared her story on networks such as NBC (The Today Show), CBS, MSNBC, and ABC, and in more than seventy publications on the arts and community transformation. As a visual artist, Amy's multimedia creations have been showcased in galleries in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Chicago, San Diego, and New York. As a playwright, she has received several awards and accolades, including Women Around Towns Women to Celebrate 2014, BroadwayWorlds Best Theatre Debut, Bistro Awardss New York Top Pick, and the Singular Award at the Sarasolo Theatre Festival. Her one-woman autobiographical musical Gutless & Grateful has toured over two hundred venues since its debut in 2012. She is also an Audie award-nominated playwright and her plays have been used by a wealth of theater companies and performed across the country by students for immigration festivals, academic projects, and during Sexual Assault Prevention Month. Her writing has been published in the Washington Post,, Glamour, Seventeen magazine, and the Huffington Post, and her story has been covered in the Daily Mail, and her memoir, My Beautiful Detour: An Unthinkable Journey from Gutless to Grateful, was published in 2019. Amy is also the founder of the campaign LoveMyDetour, which is used for seminars, workshops, curriculum, books, music, and performances, is part of the National Initiative for Arts and Health in the Military, and is currently a candidate for a Master of Fine Arts degree from Goddard College. Her website is www.amyoes.com. She lives in Westport, Connecticut.