Art Therapy

What makes an artist assemble 193,000 toothpicks?" Pete Hilsee, spokesman for the American Visionary Art Museum, mused the other day. The Baltimore museum boasts a 16-foot scale model of the ocean liner Lusitania made with something the uninspired masses use to pry poppy seeds from teeth. Hilsee invoked that piece as he was pondering another, featuring child-like choo-choo crayon drawings with mathematical calculations on the bottom. Is it art? Is it mental illness? Either way, it's the latest exhibit at the museum of "self-taught and intuitive artistry.

NEW ORLEANS -- Dispersed across the nation, survivors of Hurricane Katrina are suffering such severe psychological distress that the federal government has launched the broadest - and probably the most costly - counseling program in the nation's history. An estimated 500,000 people need some form of mental health service, which could include treatment for post-traumatic stress, substance abuse counseling, anti-anxiety medication and art therapy for children too young to talk out their grief.

New York. -- Broadway Presbyterian Church, located in uptown New York near Columbia University, has always had a place in its heart for the poor people in its community. That's why the church started a soup kitchen in 1980. The indigent, many of whom were drug-addicted and incapable of holding down a job, would come to the church to eat.Other organizations, including student groups at Columbia and nearby Union Theological Seminary, also volunteered at the soup kitchen. Before long up to 250 people were eating lunch in the church's basement every day. It had become a sprawling volunteer enterprise.

Master storyteller Len Cabral will return to share stories of Africa and the West Indies as well as traditional American folk tales at 2 p.m. Feb. 2 at the Provinces library, located in the Severn Square Shopping Center, Route 175 and Ridge Road in Severn.The program, commemorating Black History Month, will include mime, poetry, song and audience participation.Cabral, of Providence, R.I., treasures the tales his Cape Verdean great-grandparents brought with them when they immigrated to America.

How early in life can children learn to preserve the earth's fragileenvironment? Gerry Fraim is convinced the process should start even before they begin school.Fraim presides over "Mother Nature, Mom and Me," a Piney Run Nature Center program that meets once monthly for three months to inspire pre-schoolers to give Mother Nature lots oftender loving care."Some kids will pick up the ideas from the program, although I amsurprised some of them are already far beyond what I tell them," Fraim said.

Jack Mayer Willen, the oldest living graduate of the University of Baltimore School of Law, whose legal career spanned nearly 80 years, died April 24 of arteriosclerosis at his Pikesville home. He was 101. Mr. Willen, the son of Russian immigrants who later owned and operated the Sophie Tucker Noodle Co., was born in Baltimore and raised on Wabash Avenue. Mr. Willen had aspired to a stage career, but after graduating in 1926 from City College, he decided he needed something a little steadier than an actor's income.

Lunchtime concerts The Columbia Association presents its Lakefront Wednesdays Lunchtime Concert Series featuring local musicians performing rock, folk, jazz, flamenco and reggae. The series begins May 2 with Ted Garber performing from noon to 2 p.m. Also, each week concertgoers can enter a raffle for great prizes. Information: 410-715-3104. Maryland Law Day Volunteer attorneys will offer preparation of medical decision documents at no charge for older adults from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, May 1, at the following senior centers: •Bain Center, 5470 Ruth Keeton Way, Columbia, 410-313-7213.

Kirsten Elstner had already been all over the country, running photography workshops for inner-city high school students, but she knew April's Photo Camp was going to be different even before it started. The city was New Orleans. Elstner, a 41-year-old Annapolis resident who directs the nonprofit photojournalism mentoring program VisionWorkshops, put together a team from National Geographic and New Orleans' Times-Picayune newpaper and made the trip to help 15 high school students document their experiences with Hurricane Katrina through photography and creative writing.

Kirsten Elstner had already been all over the country, running photography workshops for inner-city high school students, but she knew April's Photo Camp was going to be different even before it started. The city was New Orleans. Elstner, a 41-year-old Annapolis resident who directs the nonprofit photojournalism mentoring program VisionWorkshops, put together a team from National Geographic and New Orleans' Times-Picayune and made the trip to help 15 high school students document their experiences with Hurricane Katrina through photography and creative writing.