Rarely will you be solicited for a used toilet paper roll, but perhaps you’ll hand one over for the sake of art. What else are you going to do with it?

The third annual Crayons to Canvas Art Drive is accepting art supplies of all varieties this month as organizers work to supply the Stanford Home for Children’s new art therapy room.

Begun in 2008 by the sibling duo of Sacramento artist Raphael Delgado and publicist Veronica Delgado, the drive provides resources for an art-based therapy approach for at-risk youth.

Stanford Home Development and Marketing Manager Sarah Mentze said the art therapy room, which opened in June, works as a supplementary resource to therapy programs offered by Stanford Homes.

“Kids generally can’t express complex emotions,” Mentze said. “Art and play therapy is a natural way for kids to express themselves – it’s their native language.”

So when Veronica Delgado approached Stanford Homes three years ago with a desire to do a community project that involved the arts, Mentze was thrilled.

“It’s supplementing our ability to help kids and their families,” Mentze said.

Stanford Homes serves those 24 and under, though at least 50 percent of children are ages 12 - 17, who have suffered from abuse, trauma, neglect, or struggle with mental health issues, Mentze said.

“Children in our mental health programs tend to use the art therapy room the most,” she said.

To keep the art room supplied with necessary resources, which can be common household items like Popsicle sticks and used magazines, the Delgado team has recruited the help and talent of local artists, musicians and businesses.

The Urban Hive donated its venue for a Crayons to Canvas art show to be held from 5 - 9 p.m. on Saturday and will display work from artists Brett Freeman, Moses Park, Raphael Delgado and Daniel Mendoza, while Barbados-based singer and songwriter Clemon Charles and Profound Sound DJ Service set the musical mood.

“It’s about getting together art supplies, and about something bigger than the individual artist,” she said.

With that said, she confessed that it would be artist Brett Freeman stealing the show on Saturday night, displaying four generations of artwork from his grandmother’s oil paintings, his mother’s ink-on-paper piece and his son’s watercolors complementing his own abstract, energetic style.

“I’m just a human being oozing emotions,” Freeman said.

Having only been creating art since 2005, Freeman uses a lot of found items and recycles them, or “re-purposes them,” as he put it. He said he can’t afford to buy retail products to paint on, so he uses old signs, plywood and anything flat with clean edges as a canvas.

“Every trash heap I drive by, there’s a shelf or an old door that I can paint on,” he said.

As a father, Freeman said he realizes that it’s difficult for parents to figure out what direction to push their kids in terms of hobbies, since they all cost money, but that with art all it takes is creativity and will.

“I can use my strengths to put a spotlight on the local artist’s struggles and successes to help youth learn to express themselves,” he said.

Coinciding with the art drive this month are two art workshops, open to the public, offered at the Urban Hive Gallery. Saturday morning before the show (from 10 a.m. to noon), artist Raphael Delgado will share insight into his own approach to making art. Entrance to the workshop can either be $10, or free with art supplies donated toward the drive. The second workshop will take place Dec. 18 at the same time and place.

Deglado said the workshops are meant to provide the teaching artist an opportunity to show participants his or her personal style.

“It’s meant to create a community of having an artist being a teacher,” Delgado said.

In addition to providing art resources for Stanford Home’s art-therapy room, Delgado said they would like to provide all children in the program with art kits that they can take home. She said she believes that continuing to use art as a form of expression can help children remain stable after leaving Stanford’s programs.

“It’s a creative outlet for stress, and helps them develop self-awareness,” she said.

Primarily used with children who have suffered from trauma or abuse, Mentze said the art program gives therapists a way to draw kids out in a safe way.

If you would like to donate gently used or new art supplies to the drive, bring them to The Urban Hive, 1931 H St., which is accepting donations through Dec. 31, or contact Veronica Delgado at (916) 792-4947 for more information.

Photo 1: Artist Brett Freeman 

Photo 2: Artist Raphael Delgado with Associate Executive Director, Development & Marketing for Stanford Home Karen Woodruff at the Art Therapy Room's ribbon cutting ceremony

Photo 3: Artists Daniel Mendoza

Photo 4: "Achtung" by Raphael Delgado

Photo 5: Crayons to Canvas logo