We’ve all been working on keeping our hands clean, and thinking about how much disease and germs they can carry has been at the front of all of our minds. Here we all are, viewing our hands with suspicion, demonizing this part of our bodies. Don’t touch your face. Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds. Don’t touch anything. Don’t shake hands with anyone. Don’t reach out.

But I’m a henna artist. I work with hands as the nature of my work: holding them, drawing on them, and connecting—both physically and emotionally—with my clients. Hands connect us. Shaking hands is often the very first thing we do when we meet someone new. We use hands to hug one another, dry each other’s tears, give a high five, feed our children, toss a ball back and forth. We use our hands to create: playing piano, crocheting, drawing, sculpting, dancing, or acting. We use our hands to communicate: waving hello, gesturing when we’re speaking, while communicating in sign language, writing a love note, typing an email. And when we’re reaching out to someone, calling for help, or to get someone’s attention, or even to pet a cat or dog, what we use first are our hands.

With all this talk of the Coronavirus, there’s been a lot of emphasis placed on social distancing, canceling everything, staying home, and not connecting with one another. And many of us are anxious, lonely, isolated, and struggling. As an artist I have a unique capability to help. The nature of what I do brings joy, provokes thought, instills hope, and inspires action. And even though we have to keep our distance from one another, I’m working on an art project to help us combat our isolation and uncertainty.

I invite you to take a piece of paper, trace your hand, and inside your hand write a message of encouragement on it. Something to help someone else keep going. If you feel like it, go ahead and put your name and location on it too. And then scan it and send it to me. I’ll print every hand and message I receive, cut them out, and make a giant interlocking paper chain of all of our hands and all our encouragement.

Our hands are not just vessels to carry germs and make ourselves and others sick, but they are vital, powerful parts of ourselves that we use to connect, create, communicate, and console. And I may not be able to physically reach out and hold yours, but if you send me a tracing of it, I can. And I can connect it to all the others I receive. Because email still doesn’t carry germs.

Here is a video that explains more about the project:

Participate and upload your own submissions: https://forms.gle/6tkrgAUZuDvp8tKQ9 People are already having a hard time with this all the closures, disruption...

Submission Directions:

Trace around your hand on a sheet of paper. Feel free to use any 8.5x11 sheet, or download a worksheet here.
Inside your hand shape, draw or write words of encouragement to share and decorate it.
Add your name and city, if desired. I'd love to see where all these hands are coming from!
Scan and send your contribution via the Google Form
Share your submissions and join the conversation using #healinghandsart and join the Healing Hands group online
Donate if you can to offset the cost of supplies and help keep me able to print all your artwork

Tips:

As much as I hate saying this, be sure to keep inside the lines, I’ll be cutting all of these out after I print them.
These will be printed on a range of skin-tone color paper, so keep that in mind with your design.
Please upload PDFs only.
I’ll be printing on 8.5x11 sheets.
Connect with Henna Inspired for updates on this project.

Did you know I'm supporting this Healing Hands project entirely on my own? This means I'll be unable to print any more submissions once my printer ink runs out. Please donate if you're able to support the continuation of this project.
Your contributions will go directly to paper, ink, and my continued efforts on future projects just like this one. Any amount of support you're able to give is greatly appreciated, even if it's only $1. Thanks in advance ❤️

Need help scanning?

If you have a smartphone, you have a scanner! You can use a free app like CamScanner to scan a photo to a PDF. If you have an iPhone or iPad, you have scan capability built in through the Notes app. Simply open a new note, select the camera icon, and then select “Scan to Documents.” Once you have your scanned PDF, feel free to email it directly to hennainspiredinfo@gmail.com if you have further trouble uploading your submission via the form.