The Wallaceburg and District Museum is hosting a local artist for the next month, who has recently created her own business.
Lisa Debusschere launched Glorious Paint Strokes late last year, after acquiring a $500 start-up grant through a disability program.
Debusschere’s art will be on display at the Museum for a month, until March 10. An open house for the art exhibit will be held tonight (Friday, Feb. 10) from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
“I got the business idea because I found that Wallaceburg has some things that need to be brightened up a bit,” she told the Sydenham Current.
“I want to give people who are disabled and who are mentally challenged the chance to show their creativity. I want them to be able to express themselves in a different way instead of having spurts of anger or lashing out at people that don’t understand why their circumstances are the way they are.”
Debusschere said she was diagnosed with a mental illness – psychosis – eight years ago.
“I have had huge amounts of improvement in myself through doing art on my own terms and using it as an outlet to cope with,” she said.
Debusschere has gotten a tremendous amount of support from her church, the First Baptist Church in Wallaceburg, from Community Living and from their Job Match program to help create this “art ministry.”
“I have a huge amount of support from my family too,” she said.
Through her new project, Debusschere said she has plans to host art therapy sessions with people in the community sometime in the near future.
– Photo credit: Glorious Paint Strokes
