New art studio offers free classes for grieving parents

After losing her son in 2011, Robyn Jones decided to join an art therapy class, and thirteen years later opened a studio to give parents with the same grief a chance to learn how to express their pain through art.

Heart Prints Studio in North Webster used to be a small general store until it was put up for auction in 2015.

“As a child, I’ve always wanted to live in this store. It was like the safe place, the fun place to go. You had a little bit of freedom to be able to ride your bike, which you thought was far, but it really wasn’t, I was just down the street,” Robyn Jones, Owner of Heart Prints Studio said.

Jones purchased the studio thinking that she might turn it back into a candy store, but this was before she learned the benefits of hosting a community of artists and friends who would come to talk about their loss.

“As I was building it my friends were losing children. So, it was like why don’t you come to the studio and talk to me, and we’ll sit on the porch. And then it kind of turned into a place where people just would come and hang out and talk about their kids,” Jones said.

Now, the studio is open for paying students who take lessons in painting, wire wrapping, stain glass, felting and several other art mediums. The money from those regular courses is used to offset the cost for hosting and coaching parents who want to use the space for art bereavement.

“Hopefully it will become a healing space for parents who have had children that have died. And the facility is free to them, and their families. The way I offset the costs for them is to have art classes, to have people like John and Jan and Julie come and teach what they know to people. And they will pay for that,” Jones said.

Women getting out of jail have also been able to take advantage of the space in collaboration with an organization that provides resources for women to stabilize as they get back to their communities.

“It’s a not-for-profit that works with women who have come out of incarceration and are coming back into the community. And I’ve worked with them on the artistic level. They came here and were able to do some art and help me also,” Jones said.

A crucial part of that program is Kris Wong, the man who received Jones’ son’s heart after his death in 2011. Kris Wong received the transplant and two years later met Robyn Jones. They’ve remained in contact ever since, and now he uses his art to support the studio.

“It helps me express myself, because I do things for her that she can sell. I do a lot of laser cutting, engraving. And she’s using that as part of some of her classes and things like that.This is good for me, but mostly for her. You can really see a change in her life over the last few years of how this has come together for her, being able to help others in the same situation that she found herself,” Wong said.

The studio is currently open and welcoming students and grieving parents. To learn more or visit the studio, contact Robyn Jones at 574-834-2540.