Julissa Andrade/Pax Paints
Julissa Andrade is a painter from Saint Paul, Minnesota. Shortly after she graduated from Cornell University, she sustained a complex brain injury from a car accident which damaged her vision. Needing a new way to communicate, she taught herself how to paint during intensive vision therapy. She is passionate about the transformative and healing potential of art-making based on her creative journey. Along with creating her own original work, she live paints, instructs, and takes any opportunity to talk about art.
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The Nightcall
“The Nightcall” is inspired by my visual distortions and occipital migraines. I realized that though they were painful, overwhelming, and dizzying I can create work that depicts them for others to see. I also experience the catharsis of making a difficult to describe experience material which gives me a sense of autonomy over my experience with TBI. The waves in this pieces represent giving myself to the waves of my journey with brain injury and accepting what comes as each day can bring new challenges. Overall, in this painting I hope to show we can make beauty from our painful moments that helps us connect and understand each other.
