Artist’s illness a blessing in disguise

By Laureen F. Guenther Times Contributor

Rosebud visual artist Tal Marsolais found unexpected blessing in a debilitating illness.
Three years ago, Marsolais was a student at Rosebud School of the Arts, pursuing a theatrical career. But a mysterious illness forced her to leave school.
“When I left Rosebud (School of the Arts), I could walk and sleep and eat and that was pretty much it,” Marsolais said. “I was in physical pain all the time.”
But in the darkness, something new was growing.
“At one of my worst points, I would wake up, do maybe 15 minutes of very gentle yoga, and then I would sit and draw the same three objects every day,” she said. “A statue of The Sacred Heart… an antler… and a flower crown.
“It was the only output I did during that time, other than occasionally bringing myself to wash dishes or pick berries or weeds for a few minutes.”
Marsolais slowly recovered and started “dabbling” in theatre again.
“But visual arts kept growing in my heart,” she said. She spent more time drawing and painting, eventually focusing on acrylic paint.
“A lot of my paint is bold colours and shapes, ranging from the abstract and landscapes,” she said.
“I’m interested as a person and an artist in the moments of life that keep you guessing and wondering. That feeling that you get when you’re in a place and you feel connected. Those are the moments that I like to capture.”
She applied and was accepted at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver. She also received the Prince Edward Arts Scholarship.
Then life turned again.
“When you are sick and don’t know what is wrong with you, it brings with it confusion, but also a deep sense of what you truly value and are grateful for,” she said.
She realized she didn’t want to attend Emily Carr, but she did want to keep growing, and to help fellow artists connect.
So Marsolais founded the Rosebud Art Collective, providing support and community for emerging and established visual artists.
She also applied – and was accepted — for two artist residencies.
The first was in July, in British Columbia’s Glacier National Park. Marsolais spent five days with 11 other Canadian artists, hiking, observing, sharing and painting.
“Being in this absolutely exquisite and magnificent park with a Parks Canada guide who’s also this amazing artist,” she said. “It was the most fulfilling (week of my life) because I’m much more grateful having been ill.”
She’s doing three paintings of that experience. They’ll become part of an exhibit touring Canadian galleries starting in October. The exhibit will come to Rosebud’s Akokiniskway Gallery in spring.
Next month, Marsolais begins her second residency, a two-week stay at Chateau D’Orquevaux in northeast France.
The self-led residency, with 15 to 20 international artists, offers the opportunity to hike and bike – and create art – in the local hills and forests.
“I get to concentrate on making work that is in my soul,” Marsolais said. “And I’m interested to be around an international body of artists. To be exposed to these international ideas of art, the different cultures and different stories.”
Three years after her illness began, Marsolais, dividing her time between Rosebud and her family home in Saskatchewan, has mostly recovered from her mysterious illness.
Early this summer, “I wrapped up my journey of referrals and uncertainty with a neurologist who gave me a diagnosis,” she said. “It is pretty benign now. I got to close three years of uncertainty.”
But the illness left behind a gift.
“Watching my community value me when I had nothing but anger and grief, having to work up my physical and emotional strength, and coming to terms with mortality, all led to making that Glacier (National Park) trip so profound for me,” she said.
“Here I am now, getting sent off to experience wild places and wild people so that I can do the thing that makes my soul shine.”
For more information about the Art in the Park exhibit, contact Amy Clarke at amy.clarke@pc.gc.ca. To view Marsolais’ work, go to talmarsolais.com.