In 2009, at the premier of his documentary film, Philip Brubaker had a few words for the audience to consider:
“There are artists who have spent hundreds of hours, thousands of dollars, and millions of moments of inspiration to be … artists. Some measure their success by canvases sold or number of exhibitions or word of mouth in their community. Many other artists don’t consider themselves artists. They do their drawings in notebooks that never see the light of day. They write poetry that plumbs the depths of angst and despair, like Sylvia Plath’s; they create paintings that, like Van Gogh’s, never get sold in their lifetimes. The trick to getting art shown is twofold: you have to have the confidence to put yourself out there and try to make a deal, and you must make someone believe in your art enough to display it to the world. The mentally ill can be a shy bunch. But our dreams of being artists are being realized with the Brushes with Life art gallery.
“Through creating, the mentally ill find peace. Art springs from the heart and more importantly the mind. A mind that is heavy with anxiety and pain can get a release from art like nothing else. The gallery is the best kind of therapy there is for those who struggle with mental health challenges.”
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Brubaker’s film takes the name of that art gallery, Brushes with Life, which is permanently housed in the third-floor lobby of UNC’s Neurosciences Hospital. A new exhibit is installed every six months or so; each features more than one hundred pieces of art from more than thirty artists. The gallery has a couple goals. One, as Brubaker says, is to provide a space for the work of artists who might otherwise struggle to find a gallery to work with. Another is to break stereotypes.
Julie Pace, an occupational therapist who oversees Brushes with Life, says that too often people with mental illness are portrayed as unpredictable and violent. It’s tough to overcome that portrayal, even though research at UNC has shown that people with mental illness are no more likely than anyone else to commit acts of violence. “In fact, they’re more likely to be victims,” Pace says.
What people with mental illness want, Pace says, is the same thing everyone wants—to find happiness and become productive members of society. Art helps. Pace has witnessed the power of art therapy in UNC’s clinic every day. And she’s witnessed some extremely talented people hone their craft.
Some Brushes with Life artists have studied fine art in college. Some are avid photographers. Some have been sketching for years. And some have no art background. But take a stroll through the gallery and you’ll see that all of them are artists with voices, with personalities, and with stories.
