Eros and Psyche

Artist Description: Eros the God and his consort Psyche enjoying a moment together, there are roses and a greek structure in the background.

Image Description: Eros and Psyche-Eros hold Psyche, who is his consort. Eros has wings, and short blond hair. Psyche has long flowing brown hair, is topless and wearing a flowing skirt. The picture is of them from the waist up only. There are roses behind Eros. There is Greek Architecture and grass behind Psyche.

Fairy in the Woods

Artist Description: The fairy is enjoying Springtime in her woods

Image Description: A bust of a naked fairy. Showing her from the side, shoulders up. Long flowing brown hair. She is facing left, a tree trunk is slightly behind her on the left. She is surrounded by different coloured plants and flowers.

Long Day No Fish 

A black and white picture of two people sitting down ice fishing on the lake with a sled and an ice auger. The background behind these people is a town’s street with trees.

Try Not To Get Wet 

A black and white photograph of a close up of a sprinkler, spraying diagonally. There are trees in the background.

Re-Wind 

A black and white picture of a clock tower that is taken from the bottom and looking up.

Portrait of the Artist

The artist Charlie Beattie holds his ‘Long Day No Fish’ portrait. He is wearing a grey sweatshirt and a black base ball hall. He is in front of a big window over looking a parking lot.

Abstract acrylic painting on hard canvas board of woman in a chair raised by platforms with a broken umbrella behind her

A painting of a lone Wolf calling out to the moon on a starry night.

Lost Bargains

Coloured pencil and black ink drawing with text “Lost bargain with my body.”

Often Heard Saying

Overlapping text pencil and ink drawing of phrases that brain injury survivors often think or say, like “I’m sorry, I can’t” or “I forgot” or “who am I?”

Exchange Policy? 

Hand coloured black and white photo of a patched up concrete wall with graffiti words “can I exchange my resentment for: ease? Flow? Acceptance? Drugs that work? Abs? A future?”

Flower Bouquet

This portrait is a person’s arm reaching out and holding a bouquet of flowers on a grey table underneath. The flowers’ colours are shades of pinks and reds along with green and yellow petals. The background of this piece uses an orange background with black streaks.

Castle

This image is a painted portrait of a castle in different shades of reds and yellows. The castle is on a hill of grass and is surrounded by trees. The sky is in the background of dark and light blues along with two white clouds.

Hockey Mask

A person holding the side of their face with rays of sunshine in the background. The colour of the person is orange and green and the background is made up of blues, red, green, cream, and green. This picture used a graded pattern.

Left Image

Bright and vibrant multi-coloured abstract painting, featuring a mix of different shades of green, blue, yellow and pink. The frame has a blue background.

Middle Image

An abstract multi-coloured painting, featuring a mix of blue, yellow, turquoise and green. Frame is a pink background.

Right Image

An abstract multi-coloured painting, featuring a mix of blue, yellow, and brown. Background frame is white with a brown border.

Black Music Lives Here

Black Music In The 6ix’s (Drake tribute – ode to Michelangelo ‘Creation of Adam’ in digital/floor mosaic featuring Oscar Peterson surrounded by host of black Canadian performing artists with Toronto skyline and Drake’s piano keyboard).

TORONTO-Ride The Rocket

Digital Art-Deco style Toronto tourism poster, journeying 100 years in the future.

Express Yourself

Digital watercolour portrait of MPP Dr. Jill Andrew (Toronto St Paul’s) and her partner Aisha Fairclough. Dr. Andrew is a strong historical BIST supporter and advocate

Chaos is a piece of work from the series Out of Order. The photography series arose out of happenstance. Almost a decade ago, I suffered a severe and long lasting concussion.

Brain injuries are one of the strangest medical problems we can experience. On the outside, to those who might meet someone with a traumatic brain injury, it can be completely invisible. On the inside, with the headaches, light sensitivity, brain fog and countless other symptoms, it’s anything but. The idea for the series came to me out of this experience. It is an attempt, through a visual medium, to make an invisible injury visible through photo composites.

I want to visually express how a brain injury feels in hopes that this helps people better understand my experiences and those of the many people who have invisible disabilities. I also hope it helps create more empathy and reduces bias. With Chaos in particular I am trying to show how completely overwhelming it can feel when exposed to noise, light or any other stimulus. I placed that feeling in the top of my head where I have a constant headache.

Image Description:

Hannah is in front of a Lagoon at dusk. Instead of her face there is a oval shaped hole through her head. There is blue and pink cloudy smoke coming out of the top of the hole where her forehead and eyes would be.

Flamingo Princess

There is a little girl that is sketched with a pencil. She is wearing a flamingo dress while wearing a mask on. She is staring straight with the mask over her nose. The ribbon on a stick she is holding is coloured with pinks, yellows, and greens.

Chronic

This black and white sketched drawing is a girl holding her head with her hair down in her face. She is sitting down with her knees up wearing adidas pants.

H & V

The next black and white sketch drawing is two people smiling side by side, the two people are sketched shoulders up. One girl is smiling with her mouth open and the other one is smirking with her mouth closed.

Portrait of Gabrielle Union

A portrait of actress Gabrielle Union. She has straight short black hair, and is wearing a cream-coloured shirt. The background colours that are used are dark purples and blacks.

Portrait of Chadwick Boseman

A portrait of actor Chadwick Boseman. He is smiling and is wearing a suit. He is looking off into the distance. The background colours that were used are a gradient of dark blue to light blue and brown to beige.

Portrait of Tia Mowry

A portrait of actress Tia Mowry. She is looking straight with a smirk. She has short hair and is wearing a black and white shirt. The background colours that were utilized in this portrait is a light pink.

Left Image: Picture of blue fireworks at night. People are sitting on the grass watching it.

Middle Image: A close up of golden coloured fireworks at night.

Right Image: A picture of purple coloured fireworks at night.

A painting of a young woman, she is faced to the viewer and napping on a green couch on two pillows.

House Finch With Sunflower Seed

Image Description:

A red male house finch is centred in the photo. It faces left, away from the copper and clear plastic seed feeder it perches on. It has a sunflower seed in its beak. The background is blurry and white with snow. Many, many blurry snowflakes fall around the finch, some behind and some in front.

Red-Breasted Nuthatch on Fence

Image Description:

A red-breasted nuthatch is sharply in focus compared to the worn wooden fence blurring in the background that it perches on. It is in the left of the photo facing to the right and downward, with its tail up and its head down but looking forward. Its white and black facial stripes, gray-blue wings, and red breast are all visible. It is a side profile.

Red-Breasted Nuthatch on Brick

Image Description:

A red-breasted nuthatch is centred in the photo. It is hanging off a corner of a red brick building, backlit so that the feathers around its edges are lit and the rest of its body is in shadow. It hangs diagonally left-downward, with a slight upturn of its head. Its red breast and belly are visible and its head is turned to the side, revealing black and white facial stripes. The background is blurry but still distinguishable as more brick.

Artist Statement:

Find comfort in known patterns and repetitions while challenging the eye to see newness in the familiar. This series includes scenes that we glance over without contemplation. The fading transition of modern times provides few opportunities for natural immersion. Find yourself experiencing a new perspective of the familiar – with unique group formations found in common objects: clouds, trees, leaves, beaches and various surface.

Image Description:

This image depicts a double exposure photograph of close-up blades of grass. The photographer used a prism lens, so the image is mostly blue and purple. You could consider it abstract, but also can imagine the grass blades.

An acrylic painting. A blue electric guitar is in the middle of the canvas. It has yellow pick-ups, a purple neck and grey headstock. The back ground is red on the left and yellow on the right. There are bursts of blue, grey red and orange.

My Identity Logo

An image of a person in a wheelchair that is orange, and, in the wheel, there is a bundle of fruit. There is a pink female gender symbol and grey one behind the pink, behind the symbol of the person, there is a crescent moon and a star inside of the female gender sign. There are two brown polls and three brown sticks at the bottom of the wheelchair.

Freedom

This is a knitted item with blue, pinks, reds, and white hearts on a sheet of white fabric that is on a red knitted piece on the back.

Crocheted Clutch

A red crocheted clutch.

Next time it’ll all be green

Watercolour painting of white birch trees and green foliage in spring. There’s a lake in the foreground.

Tulips, my love

Watercolour painting of red tulips with green stems and leaves in a crystal vase. The vase is sitting on a brown table and the wall behind it is blue.

Water lilies underwater

Watercolour painting of pink, orange and magenta water lilies as seen from below with blue water above.

The Hole

WE ARE SO MUCH MORE

THAN WE THINK WE ARE.

WE ARE SURROUNDED BY A

SEA OF ENERGY AND LIGHT

AND LOVE WHICH FOREVER

SEEKS TO HELP US RETURN

TO OUR WHOLENESS AND

CENTRE; EVEN WHEN WE ARE

CAST IN THE DARKEST OF

HOLES

The Ebb and Flow of Life

It’s the ebb and flow of life that matters.

From it we learn, we change, we thrive.
It teaches us wisdom, love, acceptance.
It never changes, we change.
Not as a whole but as one.
For we can only change as one.
We cannot change as a whole no matter how hard
we try.

It is not meant to be, for we are each special to the Maker.

We are each individual, 1 bright light,
that together with others can
light up the sky, the universe
– eternity.
When we try to light all the lights, we forget
our own.
Only by making it shine as bright as
possible can we help the whole.
We cannot help the whole by flickering
or doubting or holding back our own brightness.
So shine more and more each day – it is a normal
process of the ebb and flow of life. Do not fight it- embrace it and turn your eye
to Love.
For one step at a time, one day at
a time, you will reach perfect brightness
for ever and ever.
Amen.
Maria De Pasquale

– February 8, 2006

The Web

LIFE INSIDE A BRAIN INJURY

• CONFUSION

• BEWILDERMENT

• SELF DOUBT

• HOPELESSNESS

• POWERLESSNESS

• LOST

On left side is a white outline of a long haired woman looking up to the sky with bright orange/white stars representing her brain. The background is done in vivid reds, oranges and greens. In the middle of the picture is a wide dark purple lightning bolt. On the right side of the picture is a white outline of the same woman with her hair in a messy bun and looking down. There is grey fog and little bright white lightning bolts where her brain was and also at the back of her head, neck and her eyes representing brain fog, migraines, headaches and tension. The background is done in dark somber blues. The painting reflects the difference before and after trauma.

Tenacity

There is a young adult fighting a monster using a sword. The monster is black with fire hair and you can see the fire breaking through the cracks in the monster’s face. The painting symbolizes the girl fighting her anxiety.

Grin 

The face of a grey/white/brown wolf looking forward, with an abstract background.

Bare It 

The side view of a wolf baring its teeth. The wolf is a mix of grey, white and brown, with an abstract background.

A depiction of the artist’s back.

In the centre of a green background stands a small woman only wearing a pair of black underwear, only her back can be viewed. Her back is bent in some places with a bright red line running down the middle.

Canoe by the Water 

An acrylic painting of a canoe in the water, with long branches of a tree above it. There is litter in the water.

Middle Image: Reflections of the Mountains

An acrylic painting of an empty canoe in the water, with large dead fish around it. In the background is a mountain and an evergreen forest. The mountain’s reflection can be seen in the water.

Sunrise – a Woolly experience 

A textile piece of a sunset, with green grass, blue sky and a white cloud.

Fragments 

This painted picture uses different shades of reds, blues, and blacks. There are different shapes of rectangles and squares along with other shapes.

Static

This painted picture has different colour lines of blues, reds, and greens that are painted horizontally, between each colour there is a black line.

Re:Wyrd (Cognizant 7 generations)

This painting of the northern lights that use blues, whites, teals, yellow, and greens on a background of dark blackish blue, above an ocean made up of greens, blues and whites with a blue gradient section from the top of the water leading up to a black sky with stars. A skull pencil drawing on offwhite sketchbook paper with torn edges is pasted in the middle foreground of the painting. Left of the skull in the blue gradient section just above the water are seven brains lined up vertically.

Re:Checking In (How Are you?)

There are six separate hand drawn images presented in two rows and three columns; the top left image has 3 hand drawn yellow  thunder bolts with handwritten black text inside each of them. Written inside the largest central thunderbolt is, “FEEL this, I hear you…NOT listening to me.” Slightly below each side of the larger thunderbolt, are  the smaller yellow thunderbolts with one word written inside each of them. Inside the bolt to the left is written, “social” and inside the bolt to the right is written, “relations.” Above these thunderbolts is an eye  with a tiny brain sticker afficexed inside the pupil, with the words “I see you, observing me” repeatedly circling around the eye. The background is a gradient of blue shades with several hand drawn blue octopi with orange coloured brain stickers posted to their heads.

First : Femme Neurographic Tree

What is Neurographic Art? When we draw using the Neurographica algorithms, it helps us engage more neurons. This in turn transforms one’s stress and fear by drawing freeform lines to transform the stress in a beautiful work of art. This process uses a drawing technique that links the conscience with the subconscious. It has several benefits: Helps lower anxiety, Depression, blood pressure, stress, process attachment issues, grid, ADD, & PTSD.

2nd: Transit

Ten paint layers with up to 36-42 striations each representing the diversity of human race & each layer a 100 years of human history of Genocide and Slavery globally. The final layer on top deposits the resiliency and hope that we can end Colonialism, Racism, Slavery and Genocide in the next 100 years.

Today slavery affects more than 40 million people worldwide – more than at any other time in history. One in 200 people is a slave.

The word “slavery” conjures up images of shackles and transatlantic ships depictions that seems relegated firmly to the past. But more people are enslaved today than at any other time in history. How many slaves are there today, and who are they?

Experts have calculated that roughly 13 million people were captured and sold as slaves between the 15th and 19th centuries; today, an estimated 40.3 million people – more than three times the figure during the transatlantic sale trade – are living in some form of modern slavery, according to the latest figures published by the UN’s International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Walk Free Foundation.

Women and girls comprise 71% for all modern slavery victims. Children make up 25% and account fo 10 million of all the slaves worldwide. This is our past and very real present.

Third - Fifth : Continuum

The existential quandary of an Amnesiac inhabiting and co-existing with a transparent inaccessible past, an ever present present, and fearful prognostications of a very real ableist future.

Walks in Hastings Highlands

Walks in Hastings Highlands, September 2020: I was quite limited in what I could do at the beginning of my recovery but walking in nature always helped with my headaches and brain fog.

A photograph taken from a rocky peak overlooking a dark blue lake, banked by hills covered in trees. The trees are a mixture of fall colours and evergreen trees. The view of the lake in the centre is framed by evergreen trees growing on the rocky ground. The bright blue sky and layers of fluffy white clouds hang over the hills, casting shadows on some sections.

Beach in Diamond Art

June-July 2021: As my recovery stalled, my mental health deteriorated. I completed this 5D diamond art kit while an inpatient.

A piece of “5D diamond art” (rhinestones placed in a grid to form a pattern) of a beach at sunrise. The waves are gently lapping the white sand of the beach. The yellow sun sits just above the horizon, turning the blue sky shades of pale yellow, peach, and pink. The sun and sky are reflected in the waves. There are approximately 30 different colours of rhinestones in this piece, creating a similar effect to impressionist paintings.

Rainbow Hummingbird

January-April 2022: Now back home, my sister taught me to cross-stitch and I find the activity very enjoyable and meditative. I often stitch throughout the day to help clear my brain fog.

A cross-stitch embroidery of a hummingbird. The hummingbird was stitched somewhat abstractly, in a rainbow of 21 colours, like stained glass. It is facing left, its wings extended behind in flight. It is stitched on pale purple, blue, and pink 14-count Aida cloth (even-weave fabric).

Concussed PTSD

This piece represents how the title feels. I took the photos comprising the collage at the Canadian War Museum and the sculpture is one of the Vimy Ridge Sculptures. I used Corel PaintShop Pro to create the collage.

An image of photos comprising the collage at the Canadian War Museum and the sculpture of Vimy Ridge.

My Brain’s Journey Across the 6ix

My Brain’s Journey Across the 6ix is on birch wood. It comprises a photo I shot of the Toronto harbour skyline in 2009, using my Nikon D80. I applied an AI painting technique. Then using Corel PaintShop Pro I collaged on photos I took with my iPhone or Nikon, brain scans of my brain, and the duck avatar I created to represent myself in my books and social media. I chose images that represented my journey through brain injury: having my brain scanned and assessed umpteen times, eating Toronto-made dark chocolate for pain and my brain, resurrecting my photography, writing books with NaNoWriMo, relearning to read novels with the same ability as before my injury, fighting the enraging TTC, going to the water for peace and rest, being part of OCAD’s Inclusive Design Research Centre and SidewalkLabs partnership in brainstorming accessibility into urban design, a memorable trip I took with my CNIB orientation mobility trainer to the ROM for the Blue Whale exhibit, developing a brand, COVID-19, and of course raccoon nation ruling the city in the form of chocolate. I used the images metaphorically as well.

An image of the Toronto Skyline and lake Ontario. At the bottom right of the image, there is a heart shaped note that says ‘thank you Shireen’. There are cats jumping throughout the buildings, and a Covid-19 alert on the left side.

The Dream Catcher

A side profile of a beautiful princess and images captured from her fondest dreams. The original painting done in black and white with multiple patterns and designs.

After the Storm

A young girl in a dream like state floating in the water inspired by Avril Lavigne’s song “Head Above Water” conveying the message of never give up. The original artwork was a watercolour painting with a paper overlay and the lyrics of the song written through the painting.

Bollywood Bride

A young bride dressed in a colourful jewelled wedding saree, awaiting her ceremony. The original artwork was a brightly coloured acrylic painting with multiple shaped jewels.

Picture of the Artist

A picture of the artist, a young woman with straight brown hair. She is smiling and wearing a pink shirt.

Siobhan Lacey-Chow (Art Director); Photo Taken by: Olive Photography

Cruising through, all the while, strategically navigating the highway of life, bringing optimism, brightness and empowerment, to a newly accepted post-injury world, filled with on-going adversities. Driving awareness to create opportunities to shift judgment into a place of compassion.

This picture is in black and white of a girl walking on the sidewalk with a dog. In colour, there is a woman that is walking with a walker wearing a pink skirt with a long black sleeve and bright red hair, she is holding a hand of a little girl that is in a pink dress and wearing a ladybug backpack.

It includes a variety of manmade textiles and sticks, pine ones and mica from the great outdoors. My desire is to depict the great Canadian outdoors and the freedom felt when swinging (mica from Halliburton is the swing seat).

Swinging, like rocking a baby, is known to regulate and calm the person.

Tree of Renewed Life

This tree represents growth and strength while reaching for the sky while keeping grounded. I formed this tree as I recovered from my final cranial reconstruction in March 2022 incorporating the staples that were removed.

Tree of Renewed Life: This artwork is a copper wire sculpture. The tree has been constructed by twisting copper of wire of various thickness. The base of the tree was created by twisting thicker copper wire with downward twists to form roots. The upward twists represent branches with thinner copper wire to represent leaves. Colour copper wire was woven into the leaves. The staples from my surgery have been twisted into some of the branches to subtly incorporate the last staples of my surgery.

Invictus

Inspired by the poem ‘Invictus‘ by WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY.

Mountaineer and brain injury survivor. Vision impaired but eyes opened.

“Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance, My head is bloody, but unbowed. And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid. I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul”

This painting has been created on a wood panel. There is a female figurehead at the front of a boat. The water and sky pictured are in the background. The figure head is looking forwards and upwards representing strength and having courage to move out of the dark unknown and depths of troubled waters to calmer waters.

Blue Deep

An abstract painting meant to resemble the shoreline: dark blue gradually fading to white. Texture was created using heaving amounts of paint and glue.

Curacao

A vibrant abstract painting featuring green, yellow and white. Dribbles of dark yellow resin is layered on top.

The Falling Face 

A bright, multi-coloured abstract painting featuring primarily a mix of red, blue, yellow, green and orange. Texture was created with recycled materials that feel like wrinkled paper and hard bubbles.

Series 1

1) Looking down – By Faye Harnest

2) Night Air – Cassidy Bankson

3) Why Did You Forget? – Earl LeBlanc

4) Friendenemy – Dawn McLeod

5) Feed It to the Wolves – By Faye Harnest

Series 2

6) Fractured Word – Earl LeBlanc

7) FRACTURES GRAPHITE – By Faye Harnest

8) re-becoming – Dawn McLeod

9) Carving Space – Cassidy Bankson

10) Define This: I Dare You – Earl LeBlanc

Series 3

11) Underground – Cassidy Bankson

12) In Deep at the Sunday Blowout – Dawn McLeod

13) In the Deep – By Faye Harnest

14) No one Knows What its Like Behind These Eyes – Earl LeBlanc

15) Into Technicolour – Cassidy Bankson

Series 4

16) At Full Speed at the Hippodrome – Dawn McLeod

17) Musical Inspiration and Concussion – Earl LeBlanc

18) Rebound + Suspension – Cassidy Bankson

19) All of It – By Faye Harnest

20) Earthshaker – Dawn McLeod