Open Door Gallery

Snow On The Brain: Living with Multiple Sclerosis

March 19 - June 8, 2012

Opening Reception:
April 12, 2012, 4 pm to 7 pm

Conversation and poetry reading with the artist and poet facilitated by Sidewalk Sam at 6 pm.

Soon after being diagnosed with MS thirteen years ago, artist Marguerite McDonald began keeping a "visual journal" to interpret the impact of the disease on all aspects of her life, including her art. Poet Marylou DiPietro was immediately drawn to the powerful images, symbols, and emotions in these paintings, which are frank and direct regarding Marguerite's condition. They also affirm life's beauty and meaning. By speaking through image and word, Snow on the Brain brings art and literature to medical and educational communities while retaining its universal artistic appeal. The show includes 17 paintings and poems, and a full-color catalog.

Marguerite's paintings contemplate the profound and prosaic effects of a life-changing disease and explore how the external world and its toxic agents work their way inside her body and consciousness. The show’s title is taken from the painting Snow on the Brain (represented below). It is McDonald’s representation of the brain scan that indicates the presence of MS with small dots resembling snow.

By speaking in universal creative terms about the life experience of MS, Snow on the Brain connects the worlds of art and literature with medicine and the human experience of disability.

Snow on the Brain was curated by The UrbanArts Institute at MassArt, under Director Ricardo Barreto, with the assistance of Madeleine LePere. Guest curator and Open Door Gallery committee member, Jeff Melzack, has assembled paintings from the artist’s earlier career that will also be shown during the exhibition.

The Open Door Gallery promotes the work of artists with disabilities and shifts our community's perceptions of ability while enjoying quality art.