Nadine Lipton
Nadine Lipton is a multidisciplinary artist working in painting and ceramics. Formerly a charity director, music teacher, and practicing musician for over 40 years, a 2019 car accident caused a brain injury that permanently affected her hearing and profoundly altered how she experiences the world. She returned to art as part of more than five years of brain injury rehabilitation. Having studied pottery while living in Europe two decades earlier, she rediscovered clay through art therapy, then further developed her practice by studying with established ceramic artists and attending annual workshops at a Canadian craft college. She went on to build her own pottery studio from the ground up. Through both paint and clay, she explores colour, texture, and movement, creating work inspired by water, light, the changing seasons, and the restorative connection between people and the natural world.
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Made of Water
This piece, Made of Water, visually represents how my mind and body have felt since my brain injury. It feels like water crashing in every direction at once, constantly losing the balance that once lived in the quiet of my inner world.
I was inspired to create this piece because seeing this waterscape outside of myself offers a calm and silent reflection of the chaos within.
By transforming that chaos through art, I am able to move forward while sharing an experience lived by so many brain injury survivors.
To choose hope is to keep moving forward, even in the deepest currents. It is believing that strength can be found within the struggle, and that beyond every storm, beauty still awaits.
Title of Artwork: Made of Water
Water connects all living things. Though unseen, the water within us is often calm and balanced. Following a brain injury, that inner water can become turbulent, with waves of loss, grief, confusion, and change crashing in every direction at once.
The person we once were may feel distant, and the shoreline we once knew may disappear from view. Yet healing is not the return to former waters - it is the courageous act of learning to navigate new ones. Through time, patience, and perseverance, we discover resilience, renewed purpose, and hope. We learn that even in the deepest currents, there is strength to keep moving forward and beauty to be found beyond the storm.
Materials: Acrylic paint on stretched canvas.
Style: Abstract expressionist landscape featuring swirling blues and earthy brown tones.
Inspired by the turbulent emotions and profound healing journey following a brain injury, this work reflects the movement from loss and uncertainty toward resilience, renewal, and hope.
