A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a poster I’d seen at the hospital where I’m a rare disease patient. It was for a community art exhibition, to be held right there in the hospital. It’s the second year of “Journeys Through Health: An Art Exhibition”(1). Somehow I missed its first year.
This “community-based visual arts exhibition”(1) is meant to be a place for patients, families, caregivers, and healthcare staff – anyone who’s touched by illness. The theme for the second edition of this art show is “New Beginnings”(1).
I thought it was a fantastic idea; to showcase art by patients, nurses, doctors, and other hospital employees – all side by side. So I sent in one of my photos, even though it wasn’t taken with a real camera.
My disease affects my right hand and arm, so I can’t use a real camera anymore. But I love nature photography, so now try to apply its principles using only a smartphone. No filters or special software; only angle, composition, shadow, sun.
This is the photo I submitted, one that I took at dawn in my gardens at home. I love the colours, and the angle of the shot. Along with the way the sun is hitting the plants, and the rock in the top left of the shot. They seem to be glowing in the early morning light.
I got up before dawn all week to capture this image, of the first rays of the morning sun hitting this part of my gardens.
If you look closely, you can see some of the flower petals still unfurling on these rudbeckia flowers. Those are the bright yellow blooms, often called black-eyed or brown-eyed Susans here in my part of Canada.
To me, those unfurling petals fit in with the ‘New Beginnings’ theme of the art exhibition; flowers that are ‘just beginning’. But I submitted this photo just for fun, at the last minute; the very day the contest ended! Because I thought the shared exhibition – putting patients’ and hospital employees’ artwork side-by-side – was such a good idea that I wanted to show my support for it.
Guess what? I got an email today, during my business trip, telling me: “Your artwork has been selected for the exhibition “Congratulations!”.” I can’t believe it, I really can’t. My submission was just for fun, just to show my support for this exhibition and its purpose. And now my little smartphone photo will be hanging on a wall in the hospital! Called ‘artwork’.
The email said “Your artwork will be on display from October 25, 2018 until May 2019”. And I’ve been invited to the official launch of this event, the Vernissage, at my university-hospital during the evening of October 25th. Wow.
Reference:
(1) McGill University Mary H. Brown Fund; RBC Art and Heritage Centre; MSS Humanities and Arts in Medicine (McHAM); and Forces Avenir. Journeys Through Health: An Art Exhibition. Online. Accessed 25 Sep 2018:
https://journeysarthealth.wordpress.com