It’s sad, it’s heavy, and it sucks.
It isn’t easy to explain, either, and Terri Kovalcik hopes people “get it.”
Kovalcik’s artwork is currently on display at Parkside Art Gallery to give visitors some sort of sense of what it means to live with bipolar disorder.
The 100 Mile House resident decorated the walls, and even the ceiling, of one of the back rooms at the local gallery with a variety of paintings she’s done and self-published books she’s written to hopefully help people understand her condition, a mental illness characterized by alternating moods of mania and depression.
“I want you to understand this is bipolar disorder; this is what it’s like for me,” she says. “It’s like an uphill battle.”
Gallery co-ordinator Barb Brown says Kovalcik is “brave and out there” and makes “no excuses” for being bipolar.
“[The] collection of art pieces clearly tell a story of struggle, and at times, just plain fun.”
The collection is on display until June 3.
