Joanna S

Image Description:

A mixed media installation representing the various stages through the artist’s healing journey showing a large shadow box containing a watercolour painting of a long hallway with many doors showing different life events. Self portraits are depicted in the watercolour painting as well as through the wire/wood model work. One wire model sits atop a stack of insurance papers, a river of tears spilling down them. Another wire model balances atop a stack of books reaching for help from above. A tally of days and messages are etched into the inside walls of the box. The glass is shattered and the box broken open by a grappling hook and rope clutched by a colourful representation of community. The box is surrounded by a sunrise and the starry night sky, with another wire model, with babe strapped to her chest, reaching for the stars beyond the sunrise to help rescue the models within. A horse with wire models of children sitting on its back holds a rope down into the darkness. There is a clay brain showing cracks and flowers blooming from it, while the tears from the model inside spill out over the edge of the box to land in the broken glass and papers below. 

Please scroll down for a video of the piece, and a text copy of the poem written on the glass.

Artist description:

A nod to the theme of the BIST 2025 Art Show ‘Brain Odyssey: A Journey Through Healing’… ‘HOPE BREAKS THROUGH’ is my first ever art piece being displayed publicly. My first acrylic work. My first clay work. My first wire work. My first canvas piece. It seems so arbitrary and simple, yet the juxtaposition of finding these small creations so challenging in comparison to what I was able to do before is something that words cannot explain. 

I am so grateful to be able to find a means of creative expression like this, and for the support I had in facilitating it, and turning an image from my imagination and experience into a tangible piece of art. It is no small feat for any of these artists sharing their work at this show, for publicly bearing a part of their soul, their journey, their vulnerability. I am honoured to be part of such a beautiful, strong, talented and courageous group of humans, and so grateful for BIST fostering support, visibility and connection. 

During my ongoing rehabilitation and recovery from 2 MVA related TBI's coupled with physical and cognitive injuries (following a long and intense recovery from meningitis), I came across some art therapy sessions through BIST. I began experimenting with watercolours and found such a peace and means to express my creativity. Having been a part of the group installation in the 2024 BIST Art Exhibit (1000 Paper Cranes), I decided to challenge myself to participate again. 

This piece came to me in an intense flow of creative expression following an energy healing session. Self portraits and wire models throughout are a visual representation of different phases of my journey past, present, and future. Showing that sometimes the very thing that can help us out of hopelessness is holding on to a glimmer of the dreams of our future self. 

The central part of this piece shows the long journey through illness and injury, vulnerability and loneliness, through systemic barriers and traumas, fear and loss, confusion and grief. It shows tenacity, and ferocity. It shows strength and determination. It shows how it takes so much to survive brain injury (as well as physical and emotional trauma), to crawl out of the loneliness and challenges. It shows the courage it takes to reach for hope, and for those of us blessed enough to have it, lean into our family, friends and community.. to reach for that dream outside of the way people define you, the way you define yourself. To be willing to surrender and accept the beautiful new way you move through this life. To accept help. To reach for hope. To let people around you remind you that the light is within yourself. The hardest part is not giving up.. to let hope break through and your light shine, no matter how dim you think it is.

Please scroll down for video and poem.

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