Rose L. Williams

Artist Statement

So many people seem to be talking about ‘Health Care,’ writing about health care, arguing about health care. I am one of the very few who is truly qualified to comment.

Waiting four months for a medical test to be scheduled before we can confirm whether or not I need to schedule further surgery, which will take another three months on a wait-list. Spending six hours in Vancouver General Hospital Emergency department, bleeding from an internal organ, just to be told, “you ought to go see your own specialist, try not to move around too much over the weekend.” Postponing for four years my plans for finishing my Bachelor’s degree because every six months or so I am put on another surgical wait-list. Explaining to my son why Mommy needs another test or more surgery and why it can’t happen right away. For me, this is a twenty-two year story.

I’ve already had four surgeries this year and I am on a surgical procedure wait-list, two to three months this time, or so the doctor said. Apparently, his cancer patients are waiting up to a month for urgent surgery.

I live within the dysfunctional, desperate medical system. I can no longer talk about it, or try and explain to my loved ones how it makes me feel to have to subject myself to such invasive procedures and such interminable waiting.

I feel inspired by the work and life of Frida Kahlo because she fearlessly expressed and exposed her own physical and medical torment. Her courage and vulnerability have vibrated off the paintings and into peoples’ hearts and into history.

This is the only way left for me to try and reach out toward human connection when I feel overwhelmed by my own private ‘health care’ ordeal.

Determined to remember that there is so much more to me, to my life, than the pain and suffering and waiting, so much more to live life about. I paint myself moving through the process, on my knees from the pain, desperately subjecting myself to invasive procedures and then, walking away from it all into the water of the unknown.

Catalogue Description

Rose, a Trinidadian-Canadian, grew up in Montreal and began her fine art studies at Bishops University, Sherbrooke, Quebec. After moving to British Columbia, she received her diploma in painting and printmaking from the University College of the Fraser Valley. She has worked for years within the creative and commercial arts fields. Rose incorporates into her art practice twenty years of experience as a medical consumer and advocate, as well as her unique racial and cultural heritage.