Hearts, Arts & Healing Exhibit January 30-March 11, Kitchener ON

I am honoured to have four pieces of my art included in this extraordinary show: Communicating, Masked, Mind :The Gap and Waves, all of which are related to my experiences as someone living with ADHD. They are not intended to be definitive or diagnostic. There are many ways that ADHD can present itself, it can change over time and everyone is different. 

In the almost 30 years since I was diagnosed much progress has been made in better understanding ADHD and how to live successfully with it or at the very least manage it so that people don’t feel like something is wrong with them. Our brains are simply wired differently. The more we can talk about it, the more it becomes part of everyday conversations; conversations as easily started and accessible as “Hey, what did you have for dinner?” with the stigma, shame and/or embarrassment removed from the equation.

There is a movement to replace the name ADHD with VAST which stands for "variable attention stimulus trait". We have an abundance of attention not a deficit or shortage. The challenge lies in controlling it. Traits like resilience, tenacity and creativity are some of our superpowers!

There are many people that you may have heard of who have ADHD: Howie Mandel, Justin Timberlake, Simone Biles, Dave Grohl, Michael Jordan and some that it has been speculated that they did, like Picasso, Da Vinci and Mozart. 

I strongly encourage anyone to speak with a doctor and get tested rather than to self-diagnose. Connect with The Grand River Hospital and its’ Care Never Stops Foundation for more information on the resources that are available or learn how to donate to their various initiatives. https://grhf.ca/  

For more information about the Hearts, Arts & Healing Exhibit and the artists involved, please visit https://artspay.org/