Karen McLaughlin’s exhibition Critical Path, hangs in at the Martin Batchelor Gallery until November, 30th. Her exhibit includes a combination of soft graphite drawings and bolder pastel renderings. The work is delicate, and as gallery-owner, Martin Batchelor, points out, highly conceptual. Your interpretation of the pieces change as you look at them. To read the full story or view the video in Chek News, click here.
McLaughlin, a British Columbia resident, has a degree in fine arts. She’s the author of several books, and visual work has received critical acclaim. However, while nuanced and beautiful, this era of McLaughlin’s art rose in response to incredible pain.
One night 8 years ago, McLaughlin was woken by a type of pain she didn’t know was possible. She had recently released a book she had worked on for a long time, and had attended a writer’s festival less than two weeks before.
McLaughlin was diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia, a rare, neurological disease resulting from damage to the trigeminal nerve. It causes excruciating, chronic pain in a patient’s face, that can last for seconds, minutes, or hours. It currently has no cure. To read more about trigeminal neuralgia, click here.
Trigeminal neuralgia can be caused by various factors– in McLaughlin’s case, it was caused by arteries wound around her cranial nerves. Surgeons tried to fix it to the extent they could, but McLaughlin still deals with chronic pain.
It was in the midst of this pain that Karen began seeking solace in drawing. She found that the concentration eased the pain, or at least distracted her from it. Drawing is not a pain treatment, but it helps many patients cope.
“In every moment, if I’m focused on the mark I’m making, then that’s one moment that I’m not focused on the pain.”
While drawing may be therapeutic for McLaughlin, her work is not limited to that purpose. Her work reveals both high levels of skill and thoughtful attention to mark-making.
