An Unbroken Spirit

"An Unbroken Spirit"
paintings by Aaron Paquette
Opening:
November 17 2012 – Artist in attendance from 2 to 4pm

Bearclaw Gallery
10403-124 Street
Edmonton, Alberta
CANADA
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An Unbroken Spirit

This art show is about 2 things

The first is my beautiful wife who nearly lost her life in a terrible car accident on May 30, 2012. She suffered a shattered spinal column, all her ribs were broken, her left wrist was snapped and her jaw was fractured in two. Collapsed lungs, contusions on her internal organs and on and on.

The nurse who lived in a house at the scene and who called me on the phone was so brave and calm, but confided later that she was certain that my wife was going to die.

But the art is not about the accident. The art is about everything that happened after the accident.

A post I made on Facebook to tell family and friends about what had happened went viral and was seen by millions of people around the world. They prayed for Clarice. They sent healing, they meditated and sent warm thoughts.

Today she is walking, She is healing. And she is working hard, pushing her body, safely and under supervision, but pushing hard to get strong. Next summer she will walk a marathon.

She has shown me how fragile and how strong life is, both at the same time.

You have shown us how good the world is, despite media messages telling us otherwise.

The second thing this show is about is my mixed heritage.

It's about the lessons I learned from growing up halfbreed. It's the reconciliation of cultures and the wisdom that lives in the space between.

It's also about survival. It's also about spirit.

I painted these works a few years ago and since that time they've been travelling around Alberta, a province larger than the United Kingdom. After years away, they return home, and are now a part of this show and open to the public at large.

Combined, these two themes talk about the resiliency of the spirit, about how a body or a people can be crushed but rise up and push to get stronger and more vital.

I see the flowering of my wife's health happening at a time when the culture of my father's people is growing, venturing outside the shadows of pain, shame, and attempted decimation. Out into the light of a thousand fires, burning in hearts across the land. This fire will ignite a movement.

There is no anger in any of it, Only awareness. Only heart. Only an eye for the gift of life.

And what a gift it is, if we let it be.

So please come out to my show, or if you live far away, attend in spirit and online.

We'll be glad to see you.

Hiy Hiy

Aaron Paquette
November 2012

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*now I think I should have called it "A Spirit Unbroken"

oh well.