A “celebration of life” exhibit by an Alberta cancer survivor speaks to the therapeutic value of art.
Close-Up: Paintings by Donna Gallant, at the Kiwanis Gallery in the Red Deer Public Library, reveals the magnificent colours, shapes and textures of roses, irises, gladiolas, tulips and begonias.
The striking show, presented by the Red Deer Arts Council, appears to put flowers under a magnifying glass so that viewers’ eyes can take in their interior “drama,” said the artist, Gallant.
Up close, the stamens, filaments and petals she’s painted take on an abstract perspective. But when viewed from across the room, they come together in intricate, floral detail.
Gallant compares this to life: Sometimes you don’t know why you are experiencing something in the moment its happening. But you eventually gain a big-picture view with the passage of time.
The Lethbridge-based painter recalled being initially drawn to ominous dark colours and spiky shapes at the centre of flowers when she began painting this series a decade ago.
Shortly after, Gallant was diagnosed with early-stage uterine cancer in 2010. It made her wonder if her preoccupation with unsettling colours and shapes was her body’s subconscious hint that something was going wrong.
Her cancer vanished after 26 radiation treatments over six weeks.
Although Gallant still suffers from digestive side-effects of treatment, she’s been healthy for seven years — and attributes this, in part, to the therapeutic benefits of art.
“When you are working, there is no time. Times doesn’t exist. Your problems disappear…” said the married mother of two, who began also began choosing brighter images, “with greens and yellow and more light at the centres” during her recovery period.
The Regina native believes focusing on happier colours and positive thoughts, helped her heal.
Flowers symbolize “the essence of life” to Gallant, who counts American painter Georgia O’Keeffe as an influence.
The artist, who’s exhibited across the province and has works in the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and private collections, watched special-needs adults derive similar therapeutic benefits from the art classes she taught them through the Alberta Allied Art Council.
“It helps with their confidence and their focus…. One student, who at first took seven weeks to complete a project, began to finish it up in one class.”
Close Up: Paintings by Donna Gallant runs to Aug. 19.
lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter