Concussion revelations

Saturday afternoon Ellen and I went to a talk and exhibit in Northampton at the New England Visionary Artists Museum. The star of this event was Abbie Steiner, an artist who lived at Pathways, a co-housing facility in Northampton, where Julie and Jerry also owned a house, and whom we therefore got to know and actually came to own a couple of her prints. One hangs on the wall beside our bed; the other is near the dining table. Her work back then was very intricate montages of images and words, often Hebrew words and letters. In 2011, all that changed. She was walking late one night through a dark public parking garage when her head hit a canoe which was mounted on top of a minivan and sticking out behind it - it struck her just above her left eye. She collapsed to the ground, having suffered a concussion. The effects of the concussion were profound. The symptoms worsened over time and led to having to give up both her work - as an Alexander Technique Therapist - and her art. Her vision and the way her brain worked fell into a kind of chaos, unpredictable, changing constantly, painful and exhausting. But she didn't give up. Two years later, she began drawing for a few minutes at a time, whatever she could tolerate, and gradually did more and more. Her art was completely changed and became a kind of journal of her recovery. This went on for years and still goes on today - 13 years later - though she has almost fully recovered. But she is a different person, a different artist. The event Saturday included an exstensive exhibit which was stunning, and included detailed descriptions of her physical and mental condition and symptoms at the time the work of art being displayed was being created. I have never seen anything like this before. There was also a panel in which Abbie herself talked and showed some illustrative works of art, and she was joined by one of the caregivers who was a big part of her healing - Dr. Naomi Clay, O.B., a vision specialist - and a friend, Nancy Pick, who is an author of books about science. I learned a great deal about concussions (e.g., no two are alike), and found the whole experience fascinating and inspiring. I was particularly inspired by Abbie's courage to "hang in there and keep working" when it would have been very understandable if she had just said "to hell with it" and given up. Julie and Jerry were there also, and afterward, we went to their house and saw Tamar and had a snack with them - including soft pretzels just made by them, dipped in cheese sauce. Tamar seems to be doing well at Brandeis. She has just started the second semester of her Freshman year. It looks like a year of study in Japan is definitely in the future. Here are some photos of the Abbie Steiner event and samples of her work.

Abbie at left and Nancy Pick looking at a fairly recent work by Abbie.

Dr. Naomi Clay, looking at the same work.

Above: Three works by Abbie, all since the concussion, but otherwise unknown dates, taken from her website.

Two pre-concussion works by Abbie - the upper one in our bedroom, the lower one in our dining room.