Ready to show the world and herself what she is capable of, artist Christine Bachew-Lorde will be exhibiting some of her work during the Christmas season.
Bachew-Lorde, 52, who is also a senior art director at an advertising agency, told WMN before the pandemic she did not often paint, because of a busy career at the agency as well as chronic migraines, which she has suffered since the age of five.
She said in advertising, she has had to conform to the ideas of clients and society, and could not express herself in the way she wanted. Her art is a way to release anxiety and cope with the pain of a migraine. Art helps her to express herself and her feelings, and allows her to be free.
Her exhibition Awakening will showcase ten-12 pieces of oil, acrylic and mixed media on canvas and paper. Although the date is not yet set, it will be at the Soapy Days soap studio, Tragarete Road, Woodbrook at her usual end-of-year pop-up shop, where she sells her jewellery and painted bottles.
“To me it is an awakening, of me showing the rest of the world that other aspect of me.”
Bachew-Lorde said she started painting and drawing during the pandemic. Because she could not go to the hospital as frequently as she used to to treat her migraines, she started using art to distract herself from the pain. She thought up a lot of different concepts and began to draw them.
“It’s my way of managing that part of the pain, because when I have a migraine my face gets twisted, my jaw locks, I can’t see properly and my shoulder on one side tightens up. And I'm always mostly in the hospital and on drips and strong medication.
[caption id="attachment_1034648" align="alignnone" width="766"] Awakening Mind by Christine Bachew Lorde will be on display at the Awakening exhibition later this year. -[/caption]
“So when I come home, I'm usually kind of down. And sometimes the migraine lasts for three or four days. I'm usually just fighting to be present.
"So I just started to draw to release that anxiety that I feel from it.”
The migraines affect every aspect of her life, and she uses art as a way to fight off depression. But, she said, her health issues are small in comparison to those of her twin brother, Ralph Bachew. He has dystonia, a movement disorder that causes the muscles to contract involuntarily, as well as migraines. She believes if he could function and have a life, she should fight against feeling sorry for herself and find a positive way to cope.
Art has been a constant for Bachew-Lorde, from when she was a young girl growing up in Laventille to now being an art director living in “the west.”
She recalled entering art competitions when she attended Mucurapo Girls' RC Primary School, and her disappointment when her guidance counsellor at St James Government Secondary School did not choose art as one of her subjects. So when she heard about a pilot programme in graphic arts at John S Donaldson Technical Institute, Port of Spain, now a University of TT campus, she decided to do the diploma.
[caption id="attachment_103
