Last night was the Vernissage or opening night for the 128th Annual Art Show of the Women’s Art Society of Montréal (WASM), with two of my watercolour paintings on display. The WASM was established back in 1894, at a time when women weren’t yet permitted to join (men’s) art societies. Earlier this year one of my paintings was displayed in the 225th anniversary of a local historic site, Trestler House.
My local Artists’ Circle meets each month at a City of Montréal Cultural Centre housed in – you guessed it! – another historic building. That particular building, built in 1932, is also the site for many of our Circle’s art shows. As you can see, there’s often a historic aspect to many of the art events with which I’m involved. There’s another history at play here as well… my own patient history.
I used to do amateur nature photographer, while working in bioethics. Then in 2016, after a simple broken arm, I suddenly developed a rare disease that would change my life. Although Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) mostly affects my right hand and arm, it is also an autoimmune and neuro-inflammatory condition – with a long list of symptoms and effects. These include the ‘mild cognitive impairment’ that stole my bioethics and healthcare career at the end of 2018.
Once I had mostly finished grieving for my career – and for my mind, in many ways – I began exploring the world through watercolours in 2021. I view learning to paint as a form of DIY (do it yourself) movement-therapy for my neuropathic chronic pain, and as brain-plasticity training to hopefully prevent any further any cognitive decline over time.
In 2021 I won a national art award, from the Canadian Pain Society, and then in 2022 I won First Prize in the amateur Watercolour and Gouache category in a Montréal city-wide art contest. From the start of this art adventure, I’ve also been using my artwork to raise awareness of chronic pain and my motto is “Art despite pain” (#ArtDespitePain on social media).
My art and my CRPS chronic pain are so intertwined that they are pretty much inseparable, as I only began learning to paint as part of my patient history. I’m now a volunteer Patient Partner in chronic pain projects across the country, have co-authored pain research papers, give courses to healthcare students, trainees, and professionals, review university course materials for health sciences courses on chronic pain, mentor other pain patients at a local university hospital network, and more.
It’s not life that I had planned for myself, but I’m writing a new history for myself – with my husband’s help – and it’s a good one.
As always, thanks so much for stopping by. Feel free to reach out and comment over on Instagram or Twitter, because I had to disable the Comments feature here on the blog… it became too much for my cognitive issues to deal with.
Keep well, and look after yourself!
Reference
(1) Garson O’Toole. “When One Door Closes Another Opens, But Often We Look So Long Upon the Closed Door That We Do Not See the Open Door”. Quote Investigator (Website). 03 Dec 2018. Accessed 14 Jan 2022. Online:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/12/03/open-door/