In the news
Happy New Year! I'm sending you all the best wishes for 2025, above all for health, laughter, love, and many moments of joy. In the traditon of artists and others around the world, over the past few days I've been looking back at 2024 - and have realized that I've been incredibly lucky, in some ways.
There's an interesting expression in French, noting that person can be "chanceuse dans sa malchance" or "lucky in their bad luck"... which applies in many ways to me.
My art adventure began in 2021 specifically because of chronic pain and a Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), both resulting from a rare disease formerly named Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD) and now known as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS).
Although I'd had a dream of learning to use watercolours since childhood, after seeing an exhibition of them with my grandmother, in 2021 I couldn't draw a stick figure. But I'd recently read research showing potential benefits of art-learning, as well as from developing a personal art practice, for chronic pain and cognitive issues.
So I began exploring the world through watercolours in 2021, as a form of DIY (do-it-yourself) movement-therapy for my right hand and arm - which are significantly affected by CRPS - and as brain-plasticity or neuroplasticity training to hopefully prevent any further cognitive decline.
And I fell in love with how the pigments and water dance on the surface of the cotton paper, introducing unexpected harmonies and rhythms into a scene that I'd envisioned while planning a painting.
In just these past few years, my paintings have won awards, appeared in more than thirty group exhibitions, and even been featured in a three-month solo show - with additional exhibitions already planned for 2025.
Meanwhile my #ArtDespitePain initiative evolved, intertwined with my art practice, to raise awareness of chronic pain while encouraging others who live with pain to use art - practice or appreciation - as a tool for pain management. As part of these Art Despite Pain activities, this year I've appeared in a television show on chronic pain, co-presented a TEDtalk-style presentation on pain research, taught guest lectures to pre-medicine students at a university, and given numerous talks about the impacts of the arts and creativity on persistent pain.
This is why I adore that French expression I mentioned earlier, that a person can be "lucky in their bad luck" - because I have been. I'd give almost anything not to live with CRPS - or the second rare disease with which I was diagnosed in 2022 (Fibromuscular Dysplasia, or FMD, which puts me at heightened risk of aneurysm, spontaneous coronary artery dissection [SCAD], and stroke) - but I am thankful that it was the catalyst for this artistic adventure.
In that spirit of thankfulness, here are my "Top 5" art memories of 2024 - in chronological order as I can't bring myself to rank them!
. April - June 2024: My first solo show, "Watercolours on Two Wheels" featuring a mix of plein-air pieces - created during my #Watercolours-on-two-wheels bike rides - and studio paintings based on my plein-air studies, at the School of Continuing Studies of McGill University here in Montréal
. May 2024: Receiving an Honourable Mention for one of my watercolour paintings, at the 130th anniversary exhibition of the historic Women's Art Society of Montreal (WASM) at the Viva Vida Gallery
. September 2024: Attending the 3-day "Design & Imagination" in-person watercolour painting workshop with award-winning American artist Thomas W. Schaller, and his adorable dog Otis, at the Atelier d'aquarelle le Partage near Montréal. As a bonus, at this workshop I also met lovely local artist Renée Dion in person for the first time - even though I've been taking her weekly virtual watercolour courses through the fall and winter semesters since 2021!
. October 2024: Participating in "Intuitive Approaches to Watercolor", an in-person workshop with Brazilian artist Fabio Cembranelli (and his brilliant wife Flavia) at Hudson River Valley Art Workshops (HRVAW) in Greenville NY, from Sunday evening through Saturday morning, with my sweetheart traveling with me and spending the workshop hours exploring nearby natural attractions and towns
. October 2024: Seeing original watercolours by John Singer Sargent at the Isabella Stewart Gardiner Museum in Boston, along with many of his other works at the the Boston Public Library, the Harvard Art Museums, and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston - all with my sweetheart.
So much to be thankful for, most of all my much better half André - with whom I celebrated our thirtieth wedding anniversary in 2024. Merci, mon amour!
