Artist and scientist Rebecca Hay shows her painting that will be auctioned off at the Mental Health Art Show.
The Neuroscience Society Ottawa chapter will be hosting its third annual Brain and Mental Health Art Show on April 12 and is expecting the event to be bigger than ever.
The art show showcases artistic pieces about the brain and mental health and auctions them off. Proceeds from the event will go to Anroura, a not-for-profit organization that provides a supportive community for adults with mental health illness.
Rebecca Hay, a neuroscience student at Carleton University, submitted two art pieces for the art show. She used water colours to illustrate addictions in the brain in one of her pieces and hopes to have it mounted on metal.
“When I found out there was a neuroscience art show, it was like a dream come true. Finally, two passions can meet,” she says.
This is Hay’s second year participating in the show. She says the positive feedback that she received from her work last year made her want to participate again.
Harry MacKay, president of the Neuroscience Society Ottawa chapter, says he’s excited about the different art pieces. Art work was submitted from a wide range of ages, everywhere from elementary school students to university professors.
Combining science and art is actually more popular than people might think.
“It’s actually a really important and useful pairing,” he says. “Sometimes there are some concepts that are so complicated, that really the easiest way to express them is through art.”
Mackay says this pairing is not only educational, but also therapeutic.
“People who have struggles with mental health often find art a rather therapeutic way of dealing with their troubles. Art has a way of quieting the mind and allows them to express their emotions, perhaps more easily than they might with words,” he says.
Kim Hellemans, a neuroscience professor at Carleton University, says showing scientific concepts in art may allow audiences to understand science better.
“Scientists don’t do a great job of reaching out to the public and translating their work,” she says. “This is one way to put our science out there.”
Hellemans says a lot of neuroscientists have the ability to transform their knowledge of science into art.
MacKay says he hopes the expression of mental health through art will continue as the art show gains more interest every year.
“I think this art show idea is something that we really pioneered in the Ottawa region and I’d like to see the idea spread,” MacKay says.