This information comes from the artist Helen Redman. More information is available on her website.



This is about eMotion Pictures: An Exhibition of Orthopaedics in Art which opened at the San Francisco Moscone Center in March and is now at the Chicago Cultural Center.

eMotion Pictures: An Exhibition of Orthopaedics in Art
Chicago Cultural Center, G.A.R. Rotunda
2nd Floor, 78 East Washington Street
Chicago, Illinois
April 17 – July 20, 2008.

Almost 1,200 entries were received from 17 countries and 45 states, representing a broad spectrum of orthopaedic conditions. The jury included René de Guzman (Yerba Buena Center for the Arts), John R. Killacky (The San Francisco Foundation) and Paul Pratchenko (San Francisco State University). This unusual show features 200 works of art from 152 artists (including children, surgeons and patients) who celebrate struggle and healing.

While I participated in e-Motion Pictures (2001), I hesitated to enter the 2008 exhibition because it seemed like such a long time since my successful surgery for a herniated disc had taken place (1980). Although musculoskeletal problems wax and wane as I age, the suffering and symptoms that beset and immobilized me in my forties are no longer part of my life. I move freely now and alternate daily practices of Yoga, Qi Gong and physical therapy. Yet, I realized that even after physical symptoms are gone, the emotions and fear of reoccurrence are not.

"Ultimately the whole and broken live side by side in us all."— Estelle Frankel

Reading the beautiful accompanying catalogue from start to finish gave me a sense of the spirit, courage and resiliency of all the participants and a deeper understanding of how a core condition impacts one forever. While surgery helped many of us, I read of persistent, chronic problems: immobility and rigidity sometimes only finding flow and movement in art, through the paintbrush or lens of the camera.

http://www.aaos75th.org/gallery/emotion_pictures.htm

Please forward this notice on to people you think would be interested, especially in the Chicago area.  THANKS!