The story I wanted to tell was of a time … Pearl had just come back from the hospital and was very heavily medicated. My daughter, Nin who was about 8 at the time, and I went to visit her. It was a warm spring day, and she took us out on a little rooftop balcony to sit in the sun. She was moving very deliberately, her head was low and her speech was slow and a bit slurred. Nin asked, “What’s wrong with you, Pearl?” She said, “Most of the time I move around like normal, and I have many strings that attach me to the earth, and everything seems fine. But then I begin to pull on the strings, and I feel a bit lighter. Then I decide to cut them altogether and before I know it, I’m rising into the sky, and I can see everything from above. I look down and it’s kind of funny and small and different… until something brings me crashing down to earth again. And then they re-attach the strings – quite tight at first – until things get back to what they were before. So right now, that’s what I’m feeling – tight strings.”

- Susan

Mary Anne Baxter

Mary Anne Baxter is a Saskatchewan artist who has been image making - drawing - all her life. After completing a BFA at the U of S, she studied lithography at the U of R and the Emily Carr College of art. She continues to make images primarily using pastels, graphite, assemblage and print making techniques. "Art is a personal, reflective, meditative space that results in a visual response.

Susan Gordon

My primary occupation has been in community development and community arts administration in Vancouver. Storytelling has long been a passion. This work is about a friend who taught us about living with mental illness. We met Pearl together working in Vancouver's Downtown East side and followed her through a life of the ups and downs of Schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder.