Featured Artist: Cadence

Cadence’s artist statement:

While I was in the hospital, I spent a lot of time trying to escape what I was feeling. Whether it was fear, or pain, or nausea, I spent my days trying to avoid those feelings. And while escapism is, admittedly, not the best coping skill, it worked for me. I’ve always had an overactive imagination, I crafted people, buildings, worlds, universes in my mind. I’m also a voracious reader so many of the creations in my imagination are loosely (or largely) based on the worlds I’ve explored within books. I take solace in wandering the stacks of the Hogwarts library, I find excitement in climbing the creaky stairs in the house from the Spiderwick Chronicles. I go on quests and adventures with Hermione and Mallory and Percy and Lucy. So naturally, I spent a lot of time within the confines of my hospital room in my imagination. But at some point, daydreaming detracts from experiencing life. So I embarked on a real-life quest of finding an outlet. My art therapist gave me a set of watercolors and some tips and I started painting. With the help of the art therapy program and sessions, I started learning techniques and methods and different art modalities. I couldn’t leave behind the worlds in my head and my books, so I started painting them. I painted Hogwarts and Hogsmeade and Tonks. In the midst of a painful experience, I learned how to make real-life bearable through my imagination and art. I’ve kept doing watercolor since I was discharged. It’s made life more colorful (pun intended). Now I have watercolors of my characters and worlds hanging on my walls and I don’t have to daydream about an adventurous, beautiful life. My reality can be shaped by my imagination.

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