Title: Lost Bargains (16″ x 20″)

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

Title: Often Heard Saying (16″ x 20″)

Image Description: 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?”

Title: Exchange Policy? (16″ x 20″)

Every letter of the alphabet can be constructed using a combination of up to four shapes: a circle, a square, a rectangle and a triangle.

After my accident, part of my cognitive rehab included using these four shapes to make a complete alphabet, in order, each day.

This exercise made me think of words differently, like architecture or graphics. The phrases I use post-accident are also new, and involve a lot of repetition. Things like “I have to go home now” or “I can’t, I have a headache” have become common responses to invitations. The dialogue in my head (referred to as $#!+ FM) can be full of doubt and frustration with my brain’s unreliability. “What was I doing?” “How do I know you?” “Where are the F’n scissors?!”

Writing these phrases is a way of getting them out of my head, stopping rumination, and providing a form of physical meditation. “Angry Art” was born in one of my brain rehab classes and continues today has a way of shedding light onto an often shameful invisible injury. I hope to shift into empowerment as my work continues to develop. Now I can say “I made this” Thank you for taking the time to view this highly personal work.