Solo show captures artist’s journey

9 October 2008
A solo exhibition by artist Shelley Foster, featured at The Bach in Whangarei until 16 October, documents her journey from grief and mental ill-health to wellness.

Coinciding with Mental Health Awareness Week from 6 to 12 October, the exhibition has attracted a lot of positive attention and so far resulted in the sale of two of the works.

Curator Christie Brophy first met the Whangarei artist three months ago. “She had such a strong body of work that I was immediately keen to curate a solo show. Shelley has been on a long journey and her art has really helped her through the healing process.

“On opening night, she was absolutely radiant.”

Statistics show that one in five people have a mental illness at some point in their life but Shelley believes that figure could be much higher.

Dealing with death

She was diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, following events in her childhood and the death of her daughter. But, she says, she has always suffered from depression.

The paintings in her solo exhibition deal with the deaths of her daughter and her brother. She says the process of creating the paintings, writing a statement about each piece and then exhibiting them has played an important part in healing her.

“It’s hard to reveal such private, intimate details about yourself for all to see but it’s also helped me,” she says. “One of the things that made me ill was keeping it all inside.” 

The opening night of the exhibition was packed. “People loved the boldness of the work and the fact that they could read the stories behind each piece. They also said they were impressed by the courage it took to expose myself like that.”

Shelley hopes the exhibition will help others. “I’m not the only person whose child has died. I’m not the only person whose brother has died. And I’m not the only person who has moved on from mental ill-health to wellness.

“A woman from Auckland bought two of my works. She said she was overcome by the exhibition because she realised that someone else knew how she felt. Knowing you’re not alone is a huge part of achieving better health.”

Māori art and design course

Shelley is a school teacher and professional musician. She studied art at secondary school but it was only last year that she took her art further when she completed a Māori art and design course at Northtec in Whangarei.

Creating art and researching her whakapapa have kept her busy since she graduated from the course.  And there no shortage of ideas for future exhibitions. At the moment, she’s working on two paintings with a theme of Matariki. She would also like to have an exhibition based on the theme of colour and music, plus an exhibition that explores her whakapapa.

Shelley’s exhibition was organised with the help of the Whau Valley Whaiora Support Trust, which also runs an annual exhibition showcasing the work of its clients in the genres of mosaics, bone carving, clay and painting.

Shelley’s work – this time, her weaving – is a part of this annual exhibition, which runs at the Porcine Gallery, Whangarei until 1 November.