20 Poems 20 Paintings A Creative Warrior's Journal

The mission of this book is, “To empower people to process major life challenges using creativity, connectivity and play while they co-create it.”  This is by nature an interactive journal, so it’s not finished.  It needs you, the co-creator, to make it what it can be.  it is a great way for you to remember and relearn what you discover during your recovery journey, no matter what kind of challenge you are dealing with.  There are three primary healing resources it reveals, healing through creativity, healing though connectivity and healing through play.  


Author and artist Richard Harvey is an eleven-year primary brain cancer survivor and a fourteen-year melanoma survivor.  He began writing the poetry in 20 Poems 20 Paintings  A Creative Warrior's Journal in 2005, during radiation treatment.  Insomnia from radiation therapy's side effects gave him the unique opportunity to process what was happening by using creativity.  The ultimate goal is for you, the co-creator take what you learn completing it and share it with people you encounter that might need the kind of help that someone with insights like yours can benefit.  We all become mentors.  


Author and artist Richard Harvey is an eleven-year primary brain cancer survivor and a fourteen-year melanoma survivor.  He began writing the poetry in 20 Poems 20 Paintings  A Creative Warrior's Journal in 2005, during radiation treatment.  Insomnia from radiation therapy's side effects gave him the unique opportunity to process what was happening by using creativity.  


He discovered a love for advocacy while sharing these poems with other cancer fighters, survivors and their support people.  Recipients strongly supported the way he was processing and connected with his messages.   In turn, they shared his poems with people they wanted to support.  He published a chapbook of the poems called Lemonade - Notes To Cancer, which went through several runs.  He met hundreds of people in situations similar to his at cancer and brain tumor conferences where he volunteered to host survivor tables.  At these gatherings he shared poetry and a large variety of empowering resources he discovered during his search for healing. Soon survivors and their support people were interacting and writing their own original words to process their challenges.  The evident need for inspired communities of creative support in people around him motivated Harvey to create  Healing Thorough Creativity workshops.  Since 2009, he has been conducting Healing Through Creativity workshops working with participants ranging from sixth grade elementary school students to college students to varied cancer survivors, people who are in recovery and people who are not health-impaired but face major challenges like divorce and grief.


in 2013, creativity and connectivity again helped Harvey to process.  This time it was a divorce.   He found healing and reconnection with his true nature while he created many of the paintings for 20 Poems 20 Paintings  A Creative Warrior's Journal.    His original intention to publish a book of poems and paintings quickly evolved into a desire to develop an interactive platform that recipients could co-create in and share out of.  Again inspired by his affinity for healing through creativity and connectivity, he designed an environment that supports people who don't identify with being creative so they can still enjoy processing through creativity and connectivity.  The book also specifically encourages those who already love to create to co-author in their own desired ways.  This year, using Transformational Blocks from the book and mindfulness meditation skills he has been training to acquire, he developed a ten-session Healing Through Creativity  A Creative Warrior's Journey workshop series with Mary Rimsans, LCSW.  Using the workshop and books, they are providing support in educational and clinical settings and CEUs for mental health professionals, nurses, teachers and school counselors.