SAN­DRA L BLOOD

Art is a hap­py and safe space for Ak­i­lah Mitchell, an artist, teacher and en­tre­pre­neur.

“Just ex­press­ing my­self on pa­per brought me ease and hap­pi­ness, which I had nev­er ex­pe­ri­enced,” she re­called.

How­ev­er, al­though she vi­su­alised her­self in the world of art for life, she briefly di­vert­ed from that path. She pur­sued an un­der­grad­u­ate de­gree in In­ter­na­tion­al Re­la­tions and Po­lit­i­cal Sci­ence and an MA in Glob­al Stud­ies.

Even­tu­al­ly, to pro­mote art as vi­tal to hu­man well­ness, she set up her stu­dio and shop, Art by Ak­i­lah (ABA), and be­gan of­fer­ing art class­es.

From April 14-25 she will be host­ing ABA’s Cre­ative Kids Ca­reer Camp for 5-12-year-olds, with ses­sions cov­er­ing Ar­chi­tec­ture, In­te­ri­or, Tex­tile and Fash­ion De­sign­ing, Book Il­lus­trat­ing, Sculpt­ing and Land­scape Paint­ing.

On­line we­bi­na­rs and art class­es for chil­dren, spe­cial school art clubs and in-per­son art class­es will al­so be avail­able. Mitchell has al­so em­barked on next-lev­el art ses­sions that in­clude fit­ness and par­ty art.

On March 23, she joined forces with Dis­cov­er 868’s Mark Joseph for a Hike and Paint ses­sion at the Av­o­cat Wa­ter­fall.

For oth­er ses­sions, she col­lab­o­rat­ed with Aakash Dhan­raj of Casa Tours and Kalpoos Boat Tours, where Paramin and the Ca­roni Bird Sanc­tu­ary be­came the out­door art stu­dios.

In ad­di­tion, par­ty el­e­ments have been added to Sip and Paint class­es, with par­tic­i­pants danc­ing to mu­sic while paint­ing.

ABA al­so of­fers more laid-back ses­sions for the el­der­ly, where they re­lax and learn new skills, in­clud­ing cre­at­ing books and col­lages to help with mem­o­ry in ad­di­tion to paint­ing, draw­ing and sculpt­ing.

To find out more about these ses­sions con­tact Mitchell at Art by Ak­i­lah vis­it her Face­book page art­byak­i­lah, or on In­sta­gram at art­byak­i­lahtt.