This Coastal Connection is sponsored by Baths by Spicer Bros.
GEORGETOWN, Del. - I Love Bad Art Studio at the Pallet Village in Georgetown opened in February 2025 to help people with mental health, addiction, and everyday life issues by expressing themselves through art.
"It's a studio where they can come in, sit down, paint, do jewelry, or just sit back, drink coffee, and talk at a place where they're not being judged. They can feel free to do what they want," said John Wanner, art director at I Love Bad Art Studio.
"It's important to bring them in, to express themselves and let some of the bad stuff come out. Good stuff comes out, and just talk and bond and have our own little community," he added.
Wanner noted the studio typically sees two or three people a day, sometimes increasing to six or seven, and is now open to the public.
"We decided to do that about six months ago because we know how it can help everybody, not just the homeless," he said.
Scott Meade, who lives at the Pallet Village, said he goes to the studio basically every day.
"If I weren't able to do art... I don't think I would even like this world. I'd be like a world without art, like no, that's a terrible concept. That's like a world without dogs and cats," Meade said.
Meade noted he's willing to try anything artistic after working with photography, oil, watercolor, and acrylic.
"You can come in here and be yourself and not be judged for it because everybody comes in at a different level. Everybody’s going through different things," he added.
Artwork created at the studio is sold to the community, with the money going back to the artists.
"They get 100 percent back. It gives them encouragement, shows that their talent isn't going to waste," Wanner said.
Meade said he sold one of his paintings around Christmas.
"It allowed me to buy these really big [canvas] so that it afforded me the money to push my art further, and I found the bigger I went, it seemed like the better my art got because I had always had to use really small canvases," he explained.
Wanner said everything in the studio has been donated by the community.
"I can only do so much. If it weren't for these artists, we don't know where we would be. These artists have progressed so much from day one. They are going to the Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover in November. It takes artists years to get to museums. They have done their work and gotten there in a year, so we’re proud," Wanner said.