Paintings of a survivor
Artist Renu D’Cunha is a cancer and stroke survivor. She has donated some of her paintings to the Hotel Dieu Shaver.
More than a decade ago, Renu D’Cunha lost a part of herself.
She was an artist, exhibiting at places like Rodman Hall and selling her paintings from a gallery in Fonthill. She belonged to the St. Catharines Art Association and took on projects; she was commissioned to paint a mural in the cafeteria of the Canadian Tire financial services building in Welland.
“I lived and breathed art,” she says.
And then, just like that, it was gone. Her family was in turmoil. She felt the weight of stress and lost her devotion to art. Her daughter Rachel, now 30, was dealing with a mental illness. These days, a combination of medication and family support has made her an outspoken advocate for talking about mental illness. But back then, undiagnosed and scared, she needed her mother’s care.
“It consumed my whole life,” says Renu, who has two other children, ages 29 and 38. “I don’t even know how I got through it all.”
Her life was focused on healing her daughter and caring for other family members.
Four years ago, Renu was diagnosed with kidney cancer. She had surgery to remove one half of her two kidneys. It was a wakeup call.
“I needed to start taking care of me,” she says.
This time, it was Rachel, a survivor in her own right, who helped her mother. She suggested that Renu rediscover her artist within.
“I needed to feel that again,” says Renu.
In her mind, she imagined painting something bright and bold, a visual depiction of her inner soul.
“I wanted to show that I had gone through this and I survived,” she says.
Traditionally a water colour artist, she soon discovered that medium couldn’t produce the striking colours that she imagined. Browsing through the art store, she found her new medium: glass paint.
It took her the better part of a year, experimenting in her basement studio — her place of solace — with colours and technique, to create an effect.
Over the next year, she painted some 100 pieces of art, all part of the Survivor series.
It’s about her life journey. And she hopes others will find their own strength, determination and courage in her work, too.
“It comes straight from my head, through my arm and right onto the canvas,” she says.
“It comes from my heart. It comes from my soul.”
Eight months ago, Renu had a stroke. She was a home in Niagara Falls, and felt her legs give out.
Turns out, she’d had a series of mini-strokes leading up to this one, the sixth. By all accounts, she was lucky, she says. At the Hotel Dieu Shaver Health and Rehabilitation Centre, her rehab program included relearning how to walk, speech therapy and memory exercises.
“There was always someone there telling me it’s going to get better,” she says.
They took care of her emotional health too. “They told me, ‘If you don’t look after yourself, you can’t look after your kids’,” she says. It was another wake-up call. She has donated a series of paintings to the hospital, to sell and use as a fundraiser for its new Rankin Family Cancer Rehab Program.
The outpatient program, which opened in July, receives no government funding. It’s intended for cancer patients who have recently finished treatment but are at risk for a decreased independence with day-to-day activities.
Each painting starts at about $500.
They are created without a paintbrush, by pouring paint
‘‘
It comes straight from my head, through my arm and
right onto the canvas.”
RENU D’CUNHA
Artist
onto canvas and then carefully holding, precisely tilting the canvas to direct the flow of paint. She builds the colours, layer by layer.
The figures, sometimes solitary, at times side-by-side in groups of two or more, represent the survivors and supporters.
One painting, a pair of bright orange figures, is called Follow Me. It’s a pair, joined at the hip, and represents the bond between Renu and her sister, who lives in Winnipeg.
In her kitchen, a wall is consumed by a five-by-four-foot painting called Fire Walker, in many ways a self -portrait. “I feel like I’ve been through fire,” she says.
Painting offered her a peace she hadn’t felt in many years.
“I needed that break to not worry about anything else.”
While not all the challenges left her life, she felt better able to handle them.
“I am a survivor,” she says. “I feel like I’ve come through so much adversity.
“I feel like I can face anything now. I’m ready.”