Wellness Education for YOU through creativity, self-care, and the ways we COPE.
Meet Dawnita
Professional
I am an artist, art therapist, and educator who believes creativity and empathy are powerful tools for understanding ourselves and one another.
Much of who I am has been shaped by my lived experiences — my education, my work, being a mom, and the many moments in life that have stretched me, challenged me, and deepened my perspective. Over time, I have come to believe that we are more alike than we are different. When we slow down long enough to understand our responses to trauma, loss, and stress, we begin to see ourselves and others with greater compassion.
As an artist, I am most at home in the process of making. I primarily work in fibers, though I enjoy exploring many materials including ceramics, found objects, fine metals, glass, and wood. I am especially drawn to the experimental stages of creating — the space where curiosity leads and discovery unfolds. I believe creativity lives in all of us. It is not about talent or perfection, but about allowing ourselves the freedom to explore.
As an art therapist and educator, my work focuses on helping individuals and communities discover meaningful ways to care for their mental, emotional, and creative well-being. Through my work with COPE, I help individuals and communities understand themselves differently and strengthen their innate ability to cope and grow.
COPE is rooted in the belief that when we approach ourselves with empathy — and extend that same empathy to others — space opens for deeper understanding, resilience, and connection.
Whether working in schools, community spaces, or wellness settings, I am continually reminded that beneath our roles and responsibilities, we are all navigating the shared experience of being human.
My Story
Personal
Through my own personal journey, I have come to understand healing not as a final destination, but as a continuous process of learning, understanding, and growth. My experiences have shaped not only who I am, but also the way I see the world and the work I feel called to share with others.
Much of what has guided me began in childhood and continued into my adolescent years. I experienced things that I did not yet have the understanding or perspective to make sense of, and I responded in ways that made sense within the environment around me. As an adolescent, I made choices out of desperation and a desire for something different, without fully understanding where those choices might lead. The ways I coped with stress were common in the world around me, and for a time, they felt like the only options available.
As I grew older, I began to recognize that some of the ways I was coping were having a negative impact on my life. I knew I wanted something different, but knowing that was not the same as knowing how to create it. Learning to break those patterns became a gradual process rather than a single moment of change.
In my young adult years, my children, my education, and my art became important sources of motivation and possibility. They helped me begin creating a different path and gave me reasons to keep moving forward as I worked to break cycles of addiction and unhealthy relationships. But changing those patterns did not mean that everything underneath them had been resolved. In many ways, it was only the beginning of a much deeper journey.
As I studied psychology and built my career, I began applying what I was learning to my own life. I slowly came to understand how childhood experiences, trauma, loss, and everyday stress had shaped the way I understood myself and responded to the world. Things I had once simply lived through began to have context. I could look back with greater understanding and, eventually, with more compassion for the person I had been.
My art became an important part of that process. Through creating, I found a way to approach difficult experiences without needing to have all the answers first. I could explore, uncover, piece things together, and sometimes simply sit with what emerged. Art gave me a language for things I did not always have words for and, perhaps most importantly, gave me permission to remain curious.
Over time, self-care became another part of that process. The more I learned to care for myself, the more able I became to sit with difficult experiences rather than immediately trying to escape them. I began to recognize that the things I had carried for so long did not have to define me, even though they would always be part of my story.
I am grateful for my journey and for everything it has taught me. The experiences I once wished I could leave behind have become part of what continues to guide me—not because I have reached some final state of healing, but because they have taught me to keep learning, questioning, creating, and growing. They have deeply influenced the artist I have become and the work I feel inspired to share with others.
My Artist Statement
Art is beautiful, functional, and healing.
My work as an artist is predominantly in fibers, although I have experience with many other mediums, including ceramics, glass, found objects, metal, and wood. While I am naturally drawn back to fibers, I love the challenge of exploring materials outside my comfort zone and discovering what each one has to teach me.
I am drawn to the process of building and layering, exploring and discovering, and piecing things together in unexpected ways. There is something deeply meaningful in the many steps involved in making—each one requiring attention, problem-solving, patience, and curiosity. I often find myself carrying something I have learned from one material or process into another.
My own work often reflects the path I am on at a particular moment in my life. I enjoy using recycled and found materials, taking what may seem like nothing and giving it another purpose. I love the possibilities that come from combining materials, techniques, and ideas and allowing the work to evolve rather than knowing exactly where it will lead.
Creating art gives us an opportunity to slow down, pay attention, explore, and experience something with our whole selves. Whether working with clay, fiber, metal, glass, wood, or found objects, there is much to discover in the process of making.
I truly love the materials I work with, the challenges they offer, and the unexpected places they can lead me. Most of all, I love being able to share the experience of creating with others. The art-making experience is a gift for us all—not just for the talented, but for anyone willing to explore.