WASHINGTON — When Karen Pence discovered that an art therapist in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico couldn’t afford the clay her clients needed, she jumped into action.
The wife of Vice President Mike Pence, a trained watercolor artist and little-known advocate for the mental health profession, went to an art supply store in Virginia that she frequented when they lived in the state during his time in Congress, bought 120 pounds of self-drying clay and packed them onto Board Air Force One for their flight to survey the damage.
“I cleaned it,” the vice president said of the store owner.
Mrs. Pence has made art therapy her cause since she first learned of it more than a decade ago. She has visited numerous art therapy programs, both in the United States and abroad, and on Wednesday in Florida, after nine months on the helm, she planned to formally announce the goals of her art therapy initiative.
She wants to help people understand the difference between art therapy and arts and crafts, and understand that art therapy is a viable option for treating trauma, injuries, and other life experiences. She also wants to encourage young people to choose art therapy as a career.
“I don’t think a lot of people understand the difference between therapeutic art and art therapy,” Ms. Pence, a trained watercolor artist, told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview before the announcement at Florida State University in Tallahassee. The school has an art therapy program that she described as “tremendous.”
She explained that gossiping to a friend can be therapeutic, but it’s not the same as art therapy, which consists of three components: the client, the trained therapist, and the art.
Read more: VP Pence’s wife aims to raise awareness about art therapy
Although she is passionate about raising the profile of art therapy, there are other issues that help make Karen Pence tick, too.
One of them is helping military families, especially spouses. Her only son, Michael, is in the Marine Corps.
There’s also her interest in honey bees. Mrs. Pence installed a beehive on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory, where the vice president’s official residence is located, to help draw attention to the decline of managed bee colonies, which officials say could negatively impact U.S. agricultural production. She had a beehive at the Indiana governor’s residence for the same reason.
Now 60 and married to the vice president since 1985, Mrs. Pence has long been viewed as one of her husband’s most trusted political advisers. They are often together on trips, at the White House, or at the observatory, almost always holding hands.
Since returning to Washington in January (the family lived in the area while her husband served in Congress), she has accompanied the vice president on goodwill tours of Europe, Asia and Latin America, as well as trips to survey damage left by the recent hurricane in Texas. Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. She tries to visit art therapy programs wherever she goes. Journalists who travel with Pence often keep tabs on his wife; She often brings them cookies when he ventures back to the press booth for a little chat.
READ MORE: Devastated Puerto Rico needs unprecedented aid, governor says
She even mounted a small campaign, urging Virginians to vote next month for Ed Gillespie in what is seen as a close race for governor.
“It really makes a difference, I can tell you that. No one thought we were going to win,” she said, clearly referring to the Trump-Pence ticket.
The vice president often refers to his wife as the family’s “prayer leader.” She has led groups in prayer during their hurricane-ravaged travels.
“We are people of faith, so we just try to approach everything with a prayer,” Mrs. Pence said from her sunny second-floor office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in the White House complex, where she and her staff enjoyed desirable views. Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial. Art therapy drawings given as gifts decorate the outside office.
She proudly displayed many of her paintings, including the Capitol Dome, the Vice President’s Residence, a ball-turned-flower canning vase, a cardinal bird and a pink peony. She turns many of her watercolors into prints and boxed note cards that she gives to the art therapists she meets.
With the exception of their myriad pets, including two cats, a dog and a rabbit named Marlon Bundo, the Pence family are empty nesters. Their son and two adult daughters go alone.
“I think for us this is the right time in our lives for this role because our children are out of college. They are living their own lives,” Mrs. Pence said.
She will also launch a blog in conjunction with Wednesday’s announcement to chronicle her visits to art therapy programs.