Whether it's painting, drawing or molding clay, Marlys Lamar ('86 Ph.D.) extols the physical, mental and emotional health benefits -- such as boosting production of the feel-good neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin -- that can be experienced by creating art.
"Even just doodling in a coloring book -- there is something about repetitive mark-making that is calming," says Lamar, a psychologist who has been in private practice for more than three decades.
She is also president and a co-founder of The Art Room in Denton. Established in 2019, the nonprofit provides a supportive studio space, free programming and art supplies for people with mental health issues to express their creativity and better manage their emotions and stress.
"Our space creates a sense of safety. People know they'll be understood there, so they can drop their guard a little bit and just focus on the art," Lamar says. "They don't feel judged. They don't feel their mental health is going to be a barrier."
Lamar was introduced to art as a young teen after her grandmother bought her an art book. At the time, her family was living in Little Rock, Arkansas, and struggling to carry on after her father, a United States Air Force pilot, was shot down during combat in the Vietnam War. For nearly seven years, he was held as a prisoner of war at the infamous Hanoi Hilton.
"Our family was very broken by that. I just shut down," she says. Lamar saw a therapist and the experience inspired her to become a psychologist. "I was fascinated by how people live through difficult moments and got interested in wanting to understand that."
When her father returned home, she was enrolled at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock. Lamar later transferred to the University of Texas at Austin, where she earned a bachelor's in psychology. In 1980, she began at North Texas in the counseling psychology master's program and went on to complete the counseling psychology Ph.D. program.
Her first date with her husband, electric bass player and UNT College of Music alum Steve Carter ('77), happened the same day she accepted an internship in Boston, where she lived and worked for a year before returning to Denton in 1985.
Lamar later opened a private psychology practice in Carrollton, which relocated to Denton in 2002. Despite the busyness of life -- she was also raising her daughter, Simone Carter ('19, '22 M.A.) -- Lamar needed a creative outlet, so she enrolled in a noncredit art course at UNT. "There was something very personal to me about art that touched my soul and my spirit. It was very calming for me and very supportive."
She furthered her studies with additional courses at Texas Woman's University. Several of Lamar's paintings and prints adorn the walls at her Denton office, where The Art Room initially was housed before moving to its current South Locust Street location two years ago.
Lamar was first inspired to open the studio in the early 1990s, after watching a documentary about a New York psychiatrist who operated an art space for patients with serious mental health issues. "I thought that would be great to do and just kind of tucked the idea away."
She circled back to it decades later and co-founded the studio with Denton psychotherapist Maryam Flory ('08), who serves as vice president and secretary of the board.
The Art Room's programming includes weekly open-studio sessions, the Studio 416 teen program, Therapeutic Thursday sessions, an art-technique workshop called First Monday Makeshop and Art for Veterans, a popular program for current and former service members.
The studio has previously held exhibitions of members' work onsite and at the UNT CoLab, the downtown Denton art gallery, boutique and event venue operated through the College of Merchandising, Hospitality and Tourism.
"There's just something about seeing the artwork they made at The Art Room matted, framed and put on a wall that makes it seem so much greater and they are so proud," Lamar says.
Since 2019, the studio has invited the public to participate in its annual community art projects, when it creates large-scale artworks that are permanently installed at other area nonprofit organizations' facilities. Previous works include a mural at Denton's Our Daily Bread shelter and a massive mobile of 1,000 hand-folded paper cranes for the Denton County MHMR Center.
The recently completed 2024 project is a collection of paintings of animals and their biomes installed at Health Services of North Texas in Denton.
"We love beautifying places," says Lamar, who plans to spend more time volunteering at The Art Room after retiring from her psychology practice in late 2024. "We're a small organization that is growing."
