2024, you’ve been an interesting year
And yes, discharge from the hospital is finally on the horizon!
A well-known Chinese saying goes “May you live in interesting times.” Some describe the saying as a curse, but after the year I’ve had I don’t know that I’d entirely agree with that. Certainly, there have been aspects of this year that were excruciatingly painful and frustrating that I hope to never experience again, but I also can’t discount the fact that so many pretty amazing things happened too.
Here are some highlights and updates on the various strands of my life.
Pulled off my solo art exhibit
Completing my art exhibit while flat on my back and having it be such an unequivocal success will likely go down as a highlight of my life, never mind just 2024. I am so proud of the artwork that went into “The Extraordinary, Ordinary Nature of Interabled Love” and also so touched by all the people who rallied to help make it happen such as my husband, my family, my mentor and everyone who came from near and far to see the exhibit.
I am still planning to complete the remaining paintings from the exhibit once I’m home simply as part of my getting back into creating original paintings again, so hopefully this won’t be the last you’ll see of the exhibit.
I have also been invited to be part of a group exhibition in Toronto next year, so stay tuned for more details on that.
Launched art prints in my online store
Having affordable, high-quality art prints available of my work had been on my list of things to do for a while and apparently, I simply needed a window of time without other distractions to finally get it done. I’m aware that I don’t produce many original paintings each year—even when I’m healthy—so having greeting cards and now art prints has been part of my long-time strategy to provide folks with as many different ways to bring my art into their home as possible.
Thus far the art prints have been a big hit as evidenced by this photo I received recently of a freshly framed “King of Cups” print.
Watch this space for more new prints and cards coming in 2025.
Started a picture book project
When the exhibit wrapped up in August, I immediately dove into my work illustrating Anne Carter’s The Perfect Ride. The folks at Owlkids Books have been wonderful to work with and incredibly encouraging as I delve into my first picture book under very peculiar circumstances.
Certainly, when I signed on to the project in June 2023, I never imagined I’d be plowing through all the planning illustrations on an iPad suspended on a stand over a hospital bed.
As of this writing, I am diligently working toward my mid-January rough drawings deadline for the entire book. Once those are in and approved, I’ll be starting on the final artwork that has to be done by August 2025.
Became a published writer
I was invited to participate in Coach House Book’s anthology “Living Disability: Building Accessible Futures for Everyone” way back in August 2023. Given everything else going on this past year, the reality of becoming a published writer didn’t sink in until I received my copy of the book in October.
Even as someone who has enjoyed writing for many years, it was a pretty surreal experience to see my name in print alongside other prominent disabled voices.
As for future writing endeavours, I plan to continue to chronicle my experience as a disabled artist through this newsletter, as well as writing articles for our sister Substack, Tilted Windmills, as part of my work as a creativity coach.
I’m also thinking that this past wild year might be a good foundation for a memoir. Stay tuned.
Bought our first home together
Much like my extended hospital stay, buying our condo was not in our game plan for 2024. Still, sometimes you do have to play the cards that life hands you and this was an opportunity far too stellar to pass up.
Recently, as part of preparations for my hospital discharge, I’ve been granted day passes to go home to spend time with Stefan and the puppies. These trips have been physically demanding, but they’ve also been a wonderful opportunity to see the new place and bask in the neighbourhood that we can now truly call home.
Renovations for the accessible bathroom and all the rest of it kicked off on December 19th. Barring any unforeseen delays—although we’ve been very impressed with our team so far—we hope to move into our finished suite in early March.
Rehabbed myself back to mostly normal
Oh, and I’ve been in the hospital for 284 days and counting.
This was, of course, the most unexpected and greatest challenge of 2024. When I first broke my leg, I was dealing with absolutely off-the-charts levels of pain. Still, as I wrote about in my Tilted Windmills article, “In Defence of Positivity,” I am making the conscious choice to look back on this time and recognize all the things that I am most proud of.
I went from being completely immobile and dependent when I first came into the hospital to clawing my independence back one inch and Hulk-like grunt at a time. The staff, who first came to know me as someone who had to be spoon-fed my meals are now picking their jaws up off the floor when I get in my wheelchair by myself in the morning to motor downstairs to the cafeteria for a marginally better breed of coffee.
It’s been the toughest rehab journey I’ve ever done in my life, but I am genuinely proud of all that I’ve accomplished thus far.
And there is, at last, light at the end of the tunnel for my time in hospital.
While I’m certainly not back to my old normal in terms of functionality and independence, the day passes have been a good way to assess where I’m likely to need more support as I continue to recover. I have appointments in the coming weeks with home care and equipment providers to get me set up with everything I’ll need to be fully discharged sometime in mid-January.
All told it’s been a wild year, and I’m looking forward to 2025 being a little less “interesting” but no less rewarding.
Happy New Year, everyone!