The Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital Cemetery Installation was a combination cemetery cleaning and art installation held on May 16, 2015. The event was organized by Ed Janiszewski and Among Friends, a Lakeshore community mental health program. I was able to visit … Continue reading
I’m miserable. I could perhaps use help from (a) friends or family, (b) a therapist, or (c) a museum. A museum? Who turns to a museum for personal help? Creating art can be therapeutic: Artistic expression as healing is the … Continue reading
“For you who would like to scream out loud but who dare not for fear of disturbing the peace, of appearing crazy, or of alarming your friends without cause”. Artist Chélanie Beaudin-Quintin thus introduces “Screaming Booth”, an installation at Toronto’s … Continue reading
Who would you ask for help if you were going to Spain? Someone who’s studied maps and guidebooks, but has never been to Spain or someone who’s been there and sketched out a map or written a guide after getting … Continue reading
“I’m alive! I’m alive! I’m alive!” sings the character I call “Emotional Pain” in Next To Normal, a rock musical that won three Tony awards after opening on Broadway in 2009 and a 2010 Pulitizer prize for drama. It’s in … Continue reading
It is said that home is where the heart is. But violence wounds our hearts, leaving us emotionally physically, and spiritually homeless, even when there is a roof over our heads. Our battles rage on . . . . Come … Continue reading
Screen capture from Gardiner Expressive Arts blog May 9, 2012. Sculpture exhibited in 2011. Out of the mud, the lotus blooms: Women who have experienced violence transform trauma through clay. Intrigued by this title, I attended the 2010 workshop offered … Continue reading
The Shedding Skins paintings show dream images, a nun riding a pinto through the desert, a ghostly Beethoven contemplating a small vibrant green tree, a fragile, though armoured Joan of Arc astride her powerful horse,. The text tells a story … Continue reading
Why does art have anything to do with mental illness? I have worked for years as a clinical psychologist in Toronto. I was respectful, but not particularly interested in how art contributed to healing until artist Susan Schellenberg asked me … Continue reading
Sane About Town 