WASHINGTON — When Karen Pence discovered that an art therapist in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico couldn’t afford the clay her clients needed, she took action.
A trained watercolor artist and advocate for the little-known mental health profession, the wife of Vice President Mike Pence went to the Virginia art supply store she frequented when they lived in the state during her tenure in Congress, bought 120 pounds of self-drying clay and packed it aboard Air Force Two for its flight to survey the damage.
“He cleaned it up,” the vice president said of the store owner.
Ms. Pence has made art therapy her cause since she first learned about it more than a decade ago. He has visited numerous art therapy programs, both in the United States and abroad, and on Wednesday in Florida, nine months into the administration, he plans to formally announce the goals for his art therapy initiative .
She wants to help people understand the difference between art therapy and arts and crafts, and understand that art therapy is a viable option for treating trauma, injuries and other life experiences. She also wants to encourage young people to choose art therapy as a career.
“I don’t think a lot of people understand the difference between therapeutic art and art therapy,” Ms. Pence, a trained watercolor artist, told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview before the announcement. at Florida State University in Tallahassee. The school has an art therapy program that he described as “tremendous.”
Blabbing to a girlfriend can be therapeutic, he explained, but it’s not the same as art therapy, which has three elements: a client, a trained therapist and art.
READ MORE: VP Pence’s wife aims to raise awareness about art therapy
As passionate as she is about raising the profile of art therapy, other issues also help make Karen Pence stronger.
One of them helps military families, especially spouses. Their only son, Michael, is in the Marines.
There is also his interest in bees. Mrs. Pence set up a booth on the grounds of the US Naval Observatory, where the vice president’s official residence is located, to help draw attention to a decline in managed bee colonies that the officials say they could negatively affect US agricultural production. He had a beehive at the residence of the governor of Indiana for the same reason.
Now 60 and married to the vice president since 1985, Mrs. Pence has long been seen as one of her husband’s most trusted political advisers. They are often together on trips, to the White House, or to the observatory, almost always holding hands.
Since returning to Washington in January (the family lived in the area when her husband served in Congress), she has accompanied the vice president on goodwill tours of Europe, Asia and Latin America, and trips to survey the recent damage from the hurricane in Texas. Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. She tries to visit art therapy programs wherever she goes. Journalists who travel with Pence often pay attention to his wife; she often brings him cookies when she ventures into the press booth for a little chat.
READ MORE: Devastated Puerto Rico needs unprecedented aid, governor says
He also did a little campaigning, urging Virginians to vote next month for Ed Gillespie in what is seen as a close race for governor.
“It really makes a difference, I can tell you. Nobody thought we were going to win,” he said, an apparent reference to the Trump-Pence ticket.
The vice president often refers to his wife as the “prayer captain” of the family. She led congregations in prayer during their hurricane damage trips.
“We’re people of faith, so we just try to approach everything with prayer,” Mrs. Pence said from her sunny second-floor office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in the White House complex, where she and its staff enjoy coveted views. of the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial. Art therapy drawings given as gifts adorn the outer office.
Proudly looking at several of his paintings, including the dome of the Capitol, the residence of the vice president, a vase of flowers in canning Ball, a cardinal bird and a pink peony. He turns many of his watercolors into boxed prints and cartoons that he gives away to the art therapists he meets.
Except for a myriad of pets, including two cats, a dog and a rabbit named Marlon Bundo, the Pences are empty nesters. Her son and two adult daughters are on their own.
“I think for us this is a good time in our lives for this role because our kids are out of college. They’re living their own lives,” Ms. Pence said.
She also launched a blog in conjunction with Wednesday’s announcement to chronicle her visits to art therapy programs.
