Page 28 - MLT December

frontline
Living Well
by Melissa Jacobs
Creative Renewal
A groundbreaking annual exhibition Cshows that great art has no limits.
oral-colored canal houses line one side of a bridge that stands over water tinged with lavender and light-blue reflections from the
sky. The bridge bisects the scene, separating the water from the houses
above. The artist behind this beautiful painting suffers from primary progressive aphasia. Much like the bridge in his painting, PPA separates him from family, friends and the rest of society. The incurable neurodegenerative disease slowly steals language from those it afflicts. Over time, they lose the ability to speak and write.
But Dr. Michael Heitler can think, eat and create something as impressive as “Canal Houses in Amsterdam I,” which is part of Bryn Mawr Rehab’s annual Art Ability exhibit. This year’s show runs through Jan. 26 at the hospital’s Malvern headquarters.
A pediatrician from New York, Heitler has lost his language skills to PPA. His daughter, Gaby Heit, is Art Ability’s curator. “His work got juried into the show with no help from me,” she notes.
A former creative director for a magazine group in Manhattan, Heit was working as an art consultant when she discovered the Art Ability website. “I read a profile of another artist who had aphasia, and he happened to be a retired pediatric doctor like my father,” recalls Heit. “I got very emotional.”
When Heit became curator of Art Ability in 2018, the show’s participants had already been chosen. This year marks her first full cycle in the role—and it’s been a massive undertaking. Launched in 1996 as an eight-week juried art exhibit,
26 December 2019 | www.mainlinetoday.com
Painter Carol Spiker is featured at this year’s Art Ability exhibition.
ED WILLIAMS