Art Therapy

One of the classes I remember well at Talbot is the art therapy with Sandra and Amanda.

My Mum was with me and both of us would turn up at the studio. We'd make patterns and marks with paint, crayons and pencils, which was good fun together.

One of the ladies told me I could paint myself from after my TBI, so I brought in a photo where my hair was still short at the front. I then painted it in hourly sessions over six weeks. This makes me smile as my self portraits have taken a matter of months to years rather than hours!

Anybody who knows me at all, knows that I'm a perfectionist. If you look at my self portraits I think it's obvious that my art therapy painting is wrong. My eyes were way too big and the shape of my face was not right. In fact, when we got back to Glasgow in 2010 Paul put it up on the wall. But I had to take it down - it upset me, I think because it reminded me of what happened.

Saying that though, it's been up in galleries in Edinburgh and two exhibitions in NYC now. And as time has gone on I've grown more used to looking at it...