Thank you for joining us for the 9th annual Art of Recovery benefit - a celebration of art, recovery and our community!

Art of Recovery returned to Akron Art Museum on March 19 for a celebration of the talents and triumphs of our client artists.

More than 200 guests viewed and bid on the original client-created works of art, enjoyed hors d’oeuvres, engaged with the artists, learned more about CSS, and participated in a community art project.

All 20 of the participating artists were recognized during the presentation of awards, and seven of the artists received top awards for their works, as judged by Natalie Grieshammer Patrick, Director of Artist Resources for Summit Artspace, and Katie Casenhiser, CSS board member and development officer/events for Akron Art Museum.

Taking home the top awards were:

• Mark Joseph Jaroszewski, who won Best in Show for his whimsical drawing, “Cristel Castle.
• Guana, who earned second place for “Exhale,” a large work in acrylic, fabric and gold leaf on a handmade canvas.

• Kimberly Maack, who took third place for “Monsters in My Mind,” a colorful piece she created by pulling a squeegee over acrylic paint and enhancing the colors with gel ink.

Receiving an honorable mention were Bradley Rankin for “Flowers, Flowers, Flowers,” a vibrant Vincent van Gogh-inspired painting of a bouquet of flowers in a vase, and Lewis, who won for “Face Forward,” a black and white portrait in ink.

The Judge’s Pick from Patrick went to Cody Taylor’s “I’m Fine,” a three-dimensional mixed media work that conveys, “what being mentally ill feels like for those that don’t suffer from illness.” Casenhiser presented her Judge’s Pick to Miranda Taylor’s “Time,” a meticulously detailed Zentangle in black and white.

By the end of the evening, 47 of the 51 featured works of art had been sold. Seventy-five percent of the art sale proceeds went to the artists while the remaining 25% went into to the CSS Expressive Arts Therapy program.

We congratulate all of our participating artists and thank them for sharing their art, their inspiration and their stories. (See more from this year’s artists here.)

We’d also like to thank our sponsors for celebrating with us and helping to make the event such a success.