The hardest thing you’ll ever do is let yourself be soft — and it just might save you.
Benz Amataya, a Thai-born abstract artist, mindfulness practitioner, and graduate student, takes us on a deeply personal meditation on softness — not as weakness, but as a radical act of strength. Drawing from six life-changing experiences — motherhood, artmaking, her rescue dog, building an artist community, finding a spiritual home, and stepping away from her identity — Benz reveals how learning to release our grip on hardness can open us to connection, healing, and joy. Part confessional, part group practice, her talk invites the audience to weave their own definition of softness together.
About the speaker
Sirimas Benz Amatayakul is a multidisciplinary artist and psychotherapist-in-training based in Oak Park, IL.
Benz is a founder of The Dear Artists Project, an online platform with a mission to normalize mental emotional health conversations in the art community. Since 2018, The Dear Artists Project has been featuring over 150 artists and artists-in-residence and spreading the hopeful message of "You are not alone in your mental health struggles." and "Recovery is possible." Benz is currently pursuing a Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Concordia University Chicago.
Benz's main art medium is painting. All of her paintings have one simple purpose of touching, retrieving, and radiating beauty. She often investigates the ideas of repetition, surrender, transformation, innocence, vulnerability, hope, and love. Her work has been shown at The United Club, O’Hare International Airport (Chicago, IL), The Evanston Art Center (Evanston, IL), The Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago, IL), Roots and Culture (Chicago), Oak Park Art League (Oak Park, IL), Oak Park Main Library Gallery (Oak Park, IL), and Chicago Artists Coalition (Chicago, IL).
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Hosted by
Adler University
17 N. Dearborn Street
Chicago, Illinois United States 60602
Date
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DJ Mike Caliber
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