VANCOUVER -- You might wonder what's this got to do with health. Well, the art positive exhibit is a Canada-wide initiative to get the word out about what it's like to live with HIV. But as we also found out, the art is a form of therapy in itself.
The moment of diagnosis frozen in time, a feeling of being lost and alone - these are all reflections of what it's like to be HIV positive.
Gustavo Hannecke is an HIV positive artist from Ottawa. He says, "it has alot to do with solitude, loneliess, a feeling almost invisible, sometimes, I carry this illness by myself."
At the same time there's hope for the future.
Abbotsford artist Brian Carlisle, took up art after being diagnosed, says, "that A the cocktail will work and B, the virus won't work, if those two things continue, we'll live long enough for the cure."
Brian Huskins says, " we hear the new advances in drug therapies, we hear about people living longer, we don't know what it implies to live day to day."
The art itself helps patients like Brian cope with the fact that he and his wife BOTH have HIV.
Brian Huskins is the exhibit organizer and works with the Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange. He says, "it channels my pain, it channels my emotion, it channels everything."
At the Dr. Peter Centre, therapists use art to reach out to all kinds of patients living with HIV and Aids.
Sabine Silberberg, Councellor/Art Therapist at the Dr. Peter Aids Foundation, says. "it helps people to reconnect with their bodies. It helps often with the sense of easing physical symptoms even. There's some research that's been done that shows it helps ease pain that shows it helps ease stress, because attention is focussed on somethign yjay can be quite pleasurable."
For Gustavo, his art helped him recover from severe depression. But he and therapists admit, the art has limits.
Gustavo says, "my art probably was one of the most therapeutical things I had at some point, so understanding myself was a big part of my therapeutic recovery."
Monday May 8, 2006
