Mindscapes NB brings together artists hit by mental illness

Fifty artists from across New Brunswick who are bound together by mental illness are displaying the release they find in art in Fredericton.

The Mindscapes NB show is at the Student Union Building at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. It's exactly the kind of location organizers wanted — highly visible to a daily traffic of students. 

"I know, even in the time we've had the paintings up in the past couple of days, students have been stopping and asking questions about it," said Rice Fuller, president of the New Brunswick chapter of the Canadian Mental Health Association, which puts the show together.  

Fuller says the location is crucial, given mental illness often first manifests in people between 15 and 24 years of age.

'Art has got me sober'

Rachel Comeau on how art helped her overcome addiction

8 years ago

Duration 0:52

Mindscapes NB brought together fifty artists hit by mental illness from across New Brunswick who are bound together by mental illness are displaying the release they find in art in Fredericton.Rachel Comeau was 19 when she got hooked into the bottomless craving of cocaine.

"It's a disease that eats you up, and you can't survive a day without it," said Comeau.

Clean and sober for five years now, the single mother of three talked openly about losing a decade of her life.

"It put me on the street, homeless — for a few years," said Comeau in front of her paintings.

"I've been through some pretty horrific things. I've been shot, and poisoned through arsenic, and paralyzed, so after so many years of going through it, I said, 'Enough is enough,' and got help."

Comeau said it was a realization that her children would soon be old enough to understand what she was doing that finally made her seek help. With an outpatient counsellor, and a renewed belief in God, she began the painful road to rehabilitation. 

Included in that was art therapy. When she feels depression or anxiety crowding in, she picks up her brush and paints.

"Art has got me sober. It really has. Because that's how I get through it."

Each art piece comes with another story of struggle, and in some cases triumph, over mental illness.

The show is open to the public, and will run until Nov. 1 at UNB's Student Union Building.

Just the Facts

Half of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14 and three quarters have begun by age 24, according to the National Institute of Mental Health in the United States.

• Schizophrenia is the greatest disabler of youth as it strikes most often in the 16- to 30-year age group, affecting an estimated one person in 100.
• In Canada, only one out of five children who need mental health services receives them.
• The total number of 12-19 year olds in Canada at risk for developing depression is 3.2 million.
• Suicide accounts for 24 per cent of all deaths among 15-24 year olds and 16 per cent among 25-44 year olds.