What: CNIB Eye Appeal Art Event
When: Thursday (exhibition and reception from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.) Friday gala/auction is sold out
Where: Crystal Garden
Admission: Free (Thursday only)
Gurjeet Dhahan made national headlines in 2006 when her estranged husband shot and blinded her.
Remarkably, the Surrey woman has reinvented herself as a painter. On Thursday, her artwork will be displayed at the Eye Appeal Art Event at Crystal Garden, a fundraiser for the CNIB.
Dhahan (then Gurjeet Ghuman) was shot twice in the head by Paramjit Singh Ghuman in Port Coquitlam. Immediately afterward, her long-abusive husband committed suicide.
She lay in a coma for six weeks. Dhahan, who has two children, was not expected to survive. The accident left her blind and with some brain damage.
Almost a year ago, Dhahan started painting, with help from her friend Bev Mason. She has donated a pair of matching canvases to Eye Appeal Art Event.
Dhahan will be on hand for a free exhibition and artists’ reception at the Crystal Garden on Thursday. She’ll be joined by other donating artists, including Laura Harris, Grant Leier, Andy Wooldridge and Joe Coffey.
How can a blind woman possibly paint?
“I try as best I can,” said Dhahan, 48, in a recent interview.
Her art donation, titled Synapses, represents the human brain. The abstract canvases are dominated by murky blue-green swirls against an orange background, intersected by three white stripes.
Dhahan says her paintings are inspired by “visions.” To create artworks, she has Mason set up her paints, easel and canvas. Dhahan instructs her friend as to which colours she wants to use. Mason also helps guide her hand.
Said Mason: “I just describe to her what it looks like in the best way I can, given that she’s unable to see it.”
The pair met in a pottery class Mason was giving. They struck up a friendship. One day, Dhahan asked Mason if she could find someone to help her become a painter.
Mason asked around, but none of her artist friends was willing.
“They wondered how it would happen,” she said.
So Mason — a retired special-needs teacher — took on the task herself, even though she’s a potter, not a painter.
Born and raised in London, England, Dhahan did have prior art experience. She used to sketch as a child, although she gave it up in adulthood. After losing her sight, the creative urge returned, partly because she wanted to keep busy.
“When I became blind, it’s difficult to find things that keep you going during the day. I definitely want to keep myself up and going and doing things all day long,” she said.
“I thought to myself: ‘My goodness [painting] is really something I want to do.’ That’s why I contacted Bev.”
Dhahan’s other creative pursuit is writing. Each day, she writes a short “one-page wonder.” She has also completed a children’s book.
The idea for Synapses came after she listened to a PBS television program about brain injuries. Dhahan said her thickly textured paintings are a representation of brain waves.
“It’s fascinating, the way we have brain waves, how we get these sparks of energy,” she said.
Dhahan said her short-term memory was affected by the shooting. Curiously, her long-term memory seems more vivid. She’s even able to recall long-forgotten childhood memories.
Her vision disappeared after one of the bullets entered her right cheek and exited near her right eye, severing optic nerves.
“It’s absolutely amazing I’m still here,” she said.
