Have you ever wanted to vote for the People’s Choice Awards? Here’s your chance! Not the famous awards, though, for entertainment. Instead, you have an opportunity to vote for your favourite painting or sculpture – as part of the inaugural Virtual Valentine’s Day Art Show presented by Artists in Montréal (AiM) (1):
Voting for the People’s Choice Award is from Feb. 1 – 11, 2022. Scroll to the bottom of the page to access the voting form, or vote via the Contact Page. One vote per person. The artists can vote too!” (2)
There are 73 artworks to chose from, ranging from abstract to realist styles and depicting a range of subjects; architecture, florals, nature, portraits, still life scenes, and more. Mediums used include acrylic and oil paints, digital art, drawing, etching, glass, mixed media, pastel, photography, and watercolours. Truly something for everyone.
You be judge – literally! Many of the artists included in this online exhibition are professional artists, while I’m an amateur who has only been painting for little more than a year! Yes, that’s right, one of my paintings is displayed in this virtual art show. It’s a small watercolour painting, entitled “Hummingbird – Colibri”.
Colibri is the French word for hummingbird, by the way, as I wanted the title of my painting to be bilingual so that it reflects the mostly bilingual heritage of Montréal. It’s listed as “Artwork #52”, but please don’t feel obliged to vote for my painting just because you’ve read this post – pick the artwork that you like best. Find one that touches you in some way, and vote for that one.
I’m thrilled just to have another one of my paintings as part of an exhibition, to be honest. I have absolutely no expectation of winning the official Judges’ Choice or the People’s Choice awards. It’s enough for me to be sharing my art again, so soon after starting to paint just last year.
Given that I started learning to paint as a form of art-and-movement ‘therapy’, I’m still pleasantly surprised every time one of my watercolours is accepted into an exhibition! This is the seventh of my paintings to be included in a virtual art show, while I’ve had artworks in seven gallery-style exhibitions. One of the live art shows just opened, and will continue until March 13, 2022.
Why am I doing art-and-movement ‘therapy’, in the first place? As a way to help me deal with the many symptoms, of the rare disease with which I was struck in 2016; Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, or CRPS. Some people still refer to it by its older name, RSD or Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. By either name, it has resulted in a ‘mild cognitive impairment’, along with chronic nerve pain and joint pain in my right hand and arm.
CRPS also often causes a variety of other symptoms, from full-body fatigue that hits me from out of nowhere to spasms or tremors in my hand and arm, and a whole bunch more. At the end of last January, in 2021, I decided to try to learn to paint for the potential long-term cognitive benefits of learning new skills, and also as a way to try to distract myself from my usual pain.
I’d read some research hinting that creating art could help prevent cognitive decline, and one of my major concerns is preventing my current cognitive challenges from getting any worse over time:
Research suggests there are ways to increase the odds you will stay sharp, including mental stimulation, physical exercise, and healthy eating.
A just-published study from the Mayo Clinic points to yet another activity that, consistently pursued for decades, may be even more effective at warding off cognitive decline: making art.” (4)
I should note that what I’m doing is not ‘art therapy’. That is a psychologist-led intervention to use art as a form of psychotherapy, while what I’m doing is using my own creative process to actively distract myself from my pain:
Art therapy is not to be confused with regular art classes.
While they both create art, art therapy involves working with a registered or board-certified art therapist who guides you through the creative process while exploring how it relates to your pain.” (5)
If you’d like to see a few more of my paintings, you can visit my profile page (3) on the Artists in Montréal website. This Artist’s Profile features eight of my watercolours, in a range of styles. For some reason, I ended up painting several cats last year, even though I’m more of a ‘dog person’; the cat paintings were so popular that I’ve included them here. Each of these paintings of cats now lives with the folks who adopted the feline portrayed in the watercolour.
You only have until February 11, 2022 to vote for this People’s Choice award, so why not stop by the AiM website right now? Add some beauty to your day, and a moment of tranquility…
As always, thanks so much for stopping by. Feel free to drop your comment over on my Instagram or Twitter feeds; I’ve had to disable the comments section of the blog because it got to be too much for me to manage, because of the ‘mild cognitive impairment’ from my rare disease. challenges. But I do love to hear from you!
References
(1) Cathy Keays. Artists in Montréal – Artistes à Montréal. Artists in Montréal (AiM) Website. 2021. Accessed 01 Feb 2022. Online:
https://www.artistsinmontreal.com/
(2) Cathy Keays. Valentine’s Day Art Show 2022: Participating Artists. Artists in Montréal (AiM) Webpage. Undated. Accessed 01 Feb 2022. Online:
https://www.artistsinmontreal.com/s
(3) Cathy Keays. Sandra Woods. Artists in Montréal (AiM) Website. Undated. Accessed 01 Feb 2022. Online:
https://www.artistsinmontreal.com/sandra-woods
(4) Tom Jacobs. Making art tied to fewer cognitive problems in old age. Pacific Standard; The Arena Group. News Website. 08 Apr 2015, updated 14 Jun 2017. Accessed 01 Feb 2022. Online:
https://psmag.com/social-justice/making-art-tied-to-fewer-cognitive-problems-in-old-age
(5) Matthew Solan. Art therapy: Another way to help manage pain. Harvard Health Blog: Harvard Health Publishing, Harvard Medical School. 12 Jul 2018. Accessed 01 Feb 2022. Online:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/art-therapy-another-way-to-help-manage-pain-2018071214243