Gillian Lacey-Solymar

My name is Gillian and I’ve had PD for 13 years now and my old self from 13 years ago would’ve struggled with that first sentence that I’ve just written.. I point blank would not accept knowing anything about it and was quite resolute in not making any endeavour to find out anything about it. What did this illness have to do with me? Except that it dawned on me so that was not purely a rhetorical question. And then I read about the five stages one goes through, a little like mourning a death. They are identified as Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. I think I must’ve been somewhere in the middle of this cycle when I took up painting. It was a sudden urge. I had never painted before. I had never even held a paintbrush before except in School with tremendous reluctance. I’ve given up art as soon as I could. I knew I had no talent. And then something strange happened. One evening the builders had left behind some paint from the painting the walls. I started messing around with it. The freedom that gave me! The joy! I thought that I would just go buy a little paint. And that’s where it started. Where it ends, I’m not sure but I started to look forward to painting hugely. I realise that it relaxed me and that it gave me a whole new impetus – to create. Some of the works were very bleak but recently they have got cheerier and I think that cheerful art versus bleak is probably what people want on their walls. So I have struggled with what to submit but the piece I have chosen is indeed a happy piece. It is of the mountains. I love the mountains more potentially even than the seaside. My best moments are on skis. I can’t walk steadily any longer but I can still ski. Hurrah! So I hope that whoever buys this will get a warm feeling when they look at it. And I can’t wait for much more than that.