Last month I wrote about having done something completely new for me, at a local hospital. It wasn’t a new treatment for my chronic pain condition, or a new project as a Patient Partner in research. So it must have been something to do with my (now-former) career in bioethics, right? Nope!
In August I donated one of my small plein-air paintings to the fundraising Foundation of my local community hospital. The Foundation was planning to hold a Silent Auction at their charity golf tournament in September, and was having some trouble getting donations of products. So I somewhat offhandedly offered to donate one of my watercolours to their Auction:
It’s too bad I’m only a beginner with watercolours, as I’d happily donate a painting for such a good cause.”
For this year’s charity event, the funds raised were to be set aside for our community hospital’s Oncology Clinic. This cancer clinic treats well over a thousand local patients every year, right in our neighbourhood, so it’s definitely a good cause! Well, the hospital Foundation took me up on my offer.
Right after the Labour Day holiday, I dropped off my little plein-air watercolour in a frame I’d bought as par of my donation. A plein-air painting is one done outside, at the scene shown in the painting. This one was the view from a rocky point overlooking a lake, at a nature park just a short drive from the hospital.
This was the first painting that I’d ever donated or sold in any way, and I honestly didn’t expect anyone to buy it – not even for charity! I’d already told the organizers that I’d swing by to pick up my watercolour after the auction, thinking that I could re-use the frame for a future (better) painting… I only started painting in January, so I’m still making a lot of progress as I gain more experience with the challenges of watercolours.
And more experience with the “art” world in general, really! As I found out, there was actually quite a lot of paperwork involved in donating my painting; you can read about my adventures with “art-ministration” here. I’d been doing nature photography for a while – with one photo in an exposition and another winning honourable mention in a national contest – but had never had to do this kind of paperwork.
First I had to create a Certificate of Authenticity (CofA) for my painting, then I remembered that I’d never finished writing my Artist Statement. This was important to me, as I’d planned to use my Artist Statement as another tool to help raise awareness of my rare disease – and of chronic pain in general. I’d started it when Artist Statements were mentioned during one of my art classes a few months ago, but then forgot about it as I caught up in the actual painting part of the course!
Once that was done, I realized that I should translate it as well. Living in Montréal means that I’m used to preparing documents in both English and French, so I translated my CoA. I took some English/French translation courses in college, to be able to do this, but I’m not a certified translator. Luckily for me, my husband’s first language is French, so he checked my translation ‘-) We actually speak “Frenglish” or “franglais”(1) at home, a Montréal-style mix of both languages – often switching from one to the other in mid-sentence.
There was still another document required, believe it or not. So another translation to do. If you’d been wondering why I hadn’t been posting much in the past little while, this is why! That, and the fact that since late 2018 I’ve been living with a mild cognitive impairment. Another one of the results of my rare autoimmune and neuro-inflammatory disease.
The cognitive impairment made it very difficult for me to write and translate all those documents within a fairly short period. The cognitive issues slow me down, as I can only concentrate – especially on legal language or translations – for a few minutes at a time. There was simply no “brain power” left to write blog posts during the weeks when I was doing that “art-ministration”.
Why did I do all that paperwork, if I didn’t expect anyone to buy my painting at the charity auction? I thought it would be a good learning experience, and a different way to challenge my brain and my cognitive issues. The experience, I told myself, wouldn’t be wasted – even though I fully expected to be picking up my unsold painting this month.
I was happily surprised today, to find out that someone did buy my little watercolour at the charity auction. It’s a fantastic feeling, knowing that something I created has helped raise funds for our community hospital’s Oncology Clinic! It’s nice to be able use my artwork not only to raise awareness of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), but also to help other people – other patients – here in my community.
As always, thanks so much for stopping by. I wish you moments of joy and happiness throughout your day, and well-being above all. Look after yourself; you deserve it. If you’d like to comment on this post or just to eChat, please reach out via my social media accounts. I’ve had to turn off the Comments feature on the blog because it was too much to manage with my cognitive issues – but I love hearing from you!
Reference
(1) Chahinez Dib. In Montreal, we speak franglais: How a mélange of French and English gives rise to a unique cultural language. The Link. The Link Publication Society Inc.; Concordia University. 13 Jan 2021. Online. Accessed 08 Sep 2021:
https://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/in-montreal-we-speak-franglais