Nurse explored mental health healing through art.Well known Dunedin nurse and artist Heather Martin Heather Martin is a Gospel singer, and a current member of the gospel group Virtue with her sisters Ebony Holland and Karima Kibble. Early years A native of New Orleans, Louisiana, Heather was born on February 2, 1977 and is the youngest child born into Trotter family. became the first artist to work in a New Zealand New Zealand (zē`lənd), island country (2005 est. pop. 4,035,000), 104,454 sq mi (270,534 sq km), in the S Pacific Ocean, over 1,000 mi (1,600 km) SE of Australia. The capital is Wellington; the largest city and leading port is Auckland. hospital setting when she became artist in residence at Gore Hospital in 1986 with the support of the Queen Elizabeth Arts Council Her second hospital assignment was at Lake Alice Hospital Lake Alice Hospital was a rural psychiatric facilty in Rangitikei, New Zealand. Like many New Zealand psychiatric hospitals, Lake Alice was self-sufficient, with its own farm, workshop, bakery, laundry, and fire station. where she developed her awareness of what people endure when diagnosed with severe and enduring mental illness. This awareness led to a Lifelong passion for the people, things and places of mental hospital institutional life which became features of her poetry and paintings. Heather, who was born in Whakatane in 1959, graduated from the Auckland Technical Institute School of Nursing in 1980. A change of circumstance Led her to attend the Dunedin School of Fine Arts Puerto Rico's School of Fine Arts is a college-level institution of higher learning, located in Old San Juan which offers studies in graphic arts and other humane studies. Dr. from which she graduated in 1985, majoring in sculpture. In 1989, Heather took up the position of arts director for the Dunedin Creative Arts Trust. This was dedicated to creative expression for those affected by mental illness. A workshop on-site at Cherry Farm Hospital became the forerunner of an initiative to set up a studio gallery in Dunedin called Artsenta. This was in response to the government-led deinstitutionalisation Deinstitutionalisation is the practice of moving people (especially those with developmental disability) from mental institutions into community-based or family-based environments. of patients from 1991-92 and their subsequent placement in the community. Heather ran the studio from 1991-1999, managing and participating in many group shows. In 1999, she was appointed arts consultant to Lakeland District Health Board Mental Health Service in Rotorua. This role enabled her to develop and run a wide range of creative projects for service clients within a community setting. In 2004, she returned to Dunedin and, while acting as clinical nurse specialist clinical nurse specialist n. A nurse who has advanced knowledge and competence in a particular area of nursing practice, such as in cardiology, oncology, or psychiatry. for the acute inpatient ward at Wakari Hospital, completed her PhD in nursing through Victoria University in Wellington. Through text, poetry and creative images, her thesis investigated the factors that contribute to suffering or healing for patients in psychiatric institutions. Her PhD was also the impetus for her most recent works of art. These paintings feature vessels as an expression of the sanctity of human life and the challenge of shrugging off the burden of stigma and discrimination surrounding the diagnosis of mental illness. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Heather died in June this year after being diagnosed with liver cancer Liver Cancer Definition Liver cancer is a relatively rare form of cancer but has a high mortality rate. Liver cancers can be classified into two types. last year. From an obituary by Pat Irvine and Mary McMillan |
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