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1er Symposium canadien sur la COVID LONGUE
4th Canadian Symposium on Long COVID
Dr. Michelle Lavoie (she/her) is a professional artist and curator, researcher, educator, and program developer. Her artmaking, curatorial practice, and arts-based, narrative, and community-based research is driven by her commitment to engage communities in creative, compelling and accessible ways to create dialogue and foster public understanding of complex issues. Her award-winning community art programs aim to support emerging artists and build resources and community resilience. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Queen’s) and Master of Fine Arts (Alberta), and Ph.D. in Educational Policy Studies (Alberta). Michelle is a professional artist with 35+ years of international, national and regional exhibitions. Between 2015 and 2024, Michelle has curated several important public arts exhibitions to hold open safe, accessible, and engaging public spaces for previously silent stories to be seen and heard. A few significant exhibitions include: the Edmonton Queer History Project , Art Gallery of Alberta 2015: TREX Re-Imaging Normal for Alberta Foundation for the Arts that travelled to 22 venues (2018-20), viewership recorded at 51K; The 2SLGBTQ+ Intergenerational Art Project (2023-24), viewership estimated at 90K; Seeking Care: Imagining Alongside Youth Mental Health Stories (2024) viewership estimated at 60K. Michelle’s innovative work as a curator ties visual and narrative ways of thinking and knowing to mobilize community and research knowledge to support communities and educate publics.
Michelle Lavoie
Currator
James Sessford
This is my representation of how I see that the media, medical profession, and politicians/government have actively chosen to ignore COVID.
Patrice Weiss
In my limited energy envelope I explored my creative side through painting with watercolours.
Kate Mayo
Sometimes the grief of a life changed by Long COVID is overwhelming. Like drowning in your own tears as doctors dismiss you, people stop inviting you, the world moves on without considering you. This piece was created at a low point in my journey and it expresses the desperation and depression of living with Long COVID.
Bruce Miller
The art piece I am submitting shows the energy of positivity that I had , the " sad " part of the wood burning , shows what I struggle with now , the energy of trying to remain positive and the struggle to keep the sadness away.
Bonnie Terry
I wrote this poem as a way of expressing to other much of the sadness I experience as a result of having my entire life changed by long covid. I know I am not alone in this journey.
Nathan Locke
Oubaitori ended up being a thoroughly cathartic process for me, dealing directly with not only the trauma of Covid, but the aftermath it has had, and continues to have, on my life. Lyrically contemplating existence, our universe, and our purpose here, Oubaitori still feels emotionally energizing and empowering to the extent that we can accept and move on from our chronic pain.
Nancy's Story
Leslie Stoyan
This is a social media post I made about a negative experience I had that has led to an medical breakthrough moment, subsequently resulting in positive changemaking in the medical world.
Mehrdad Askarian
“I Am Still Here” is a poetic rendering of the lived experiences of Iranian immigrants in Canada living with Long COVID. Rooted in a qualitative research project using Interpretive Description, this piece emerges from deeply personal interviews, transcribed, translated, and transformed into poetry that carries not only meaning, but memory.
Nikkie Gallant
Living with LC- Episode 1: The Physical and Cognitive Realities
Living with LC (and other chronic illnesses and disabilities) is accompanied by physical and cognitive symptoms that impact (and disrupt) activities of daily living (personal care, house chores, child care, etc.), leisure time, and occupational roles.
Brought to you by St. John's Rehab at Sunnybrook.
Brought to you by St. John's Rehab at Sunnybrook.
Living with LC- Episode 2: Coping with Anxiety, Fear, Loss, and Isolation
The experience of living with LC (and other chronic illnesses and disabilities) puts strains on one’s mental and emotional health as people navigate coping with anxiety (around health status, fear (of the unknown), loss (of self, occupation, identity, meaningful activity, purpose), and isolation (from previous relationships and community connections).
Brought to you by St. John's Rehab at Sunnybrook.
Brought to you by St. John's Rehab at Sunnybrook.
Living with LC- Episode 3: Navigating the (In)visibility of long COVID
LC has been conceptualized as an invisible disability due to its invisible symptoms and impairments (commonly, severe fatigue and brain fog) not visible to the eye. Like other invisible disabilities (e.g., anxiety, depression, chronic pain or fatigue, learning disabilities, etc.), people living with an invisible disability commonly experience perceived stigma that leads to discriminatory attitudes and practices across health and social care systems.
Brought to you by St. John's Rehab at Sunnybrook.
Brought to you by St. John's Rehab at Sunnybrook.
Living with LC- Episode 4: The Caregiving Experience
It is not just the person living with LC that experiences disruptions to their activities of daily living, occupational roles, leisure activities, social relationships, mental and emotional health, but also informal family caregivers who are often put into positions to support and care for their loved ones.
Brought to you by St. John's Rehab at Sunnybrook.
Brought to you by St. John's Rehab at Sunnybrook.
Living with LC- Episode 5: Finding Hope for the Future
People with LC and caregivers are in need of nurturing supportive healing spaces and practices as they navigate the unknowns and complexities of their LC care provisions. We hope this docuseries can inspire hope for a future that better acknowledges, supports, and cares for the LC community broadly.
Brought to you by St. John's Rehab at Sunnybrook.
Brought to you by St. John's Rehab at Sunnybrook.
2nd Canadian Symposium on Long COVID
Below are the submissions from the 2nd Canadian Symposium on Long COVID, held in 2024
Ann Fischer
I'm a photographer who documents the beauty around me as well as images that reflect how I feel on some of my darker days. I am attaching one of the latter for the symposium.
Medical Gaslighting by Brooklyn Johnston
She is a pea inside a pod by Kathleen Yearwood
This was a lino cut I began during the early healing phase after 7 months of disability. I had a stool to sit on and I tried to work a little longer each time at cutting the design. It was hard but it helped me to have a project and a goal. I made several prints for a friends book. This is a star- nosed mole in her burrow. My friend titled it "She is a pea inside a pod"
Acceptance by Charlotte Hedman
This is a series of self portrait photographs that I took. To me, they portray the feelings of having Long Covid.
Brain Fog by Charlotte Hedman
I'm still me by Charlotte Hedman
Sue T
This piece represents a long-covid journey from darkness to relative brightness as I grapple with the ups and downs of this debilitating condition and learn to accept that I want to live as the best "me" possible, despite my limitations.
C. longue by SZ
My experience of Long COVID, which in French is "COVID longue", is represented here by a concrete chaise longue. The chaise longue has been held as an icon of psychoanalysis; it is the chair on which the patient would lie down and be subjected to the therapist’s dissection. This captures my journey with Long COVID/COVID longue. I have been forced to lie on a cold, decrepit chaise longue and be scrutinized, pathologized and dehumanized for having real physical symptoms. My lived experience of this condition has been reduced to having a mental illness - one that comes with condescension and stigma, not support and empathy the way all mental illness should be treated.
Long COVID is not “all in our heads” as it has been proposed to be, and the individuals who live with it should not be forced to endure ridicule and judgement because of the lack of understanding about this condition. I refuse to lie on this chaise longue.
Long COVID is not “all in our heads” as it has been proposed to be, and the individuals who live with it should not be forced to endure ridicule and judgement because of the lack of understanding about this condition. I refuse to lie on this chaise longue.
Liz Anderson
I was doing a series of self-portaits in April and wanted to capture my experience with Long Covid. I took the photo on film that I developed myself at home.
Rosalie Trépanier
My drawing shows someone in the boat with a long covid. She's in such a fog that she's almost obliterated. She's lost. The signs in French says in English "This way to get out of this" but there are no indications, there's no help available either.
Long Covid Comix (1) by Joel Semchuk
Long Covid Comix (2) by Joel Semchuk
Long Covid Comix (3) by Joel Semchuk
Long Covid Comix (4) by Joel Semchuk
Long Covid Comix (5) by Joel Semchuk
Long Covid Comix (6) by Joel Semchuk
Wish Poem by Leeya Raj
This is a wish poem about a wish I held on to for the longest time. As I got sicker over time, I learned though emotions that wishes fade and grow. My wish was to go back to my old life and get back everything I lost, which faded over time, but never fully went away. I will always cherish the memories of my old self. I now know after living life with Long Covid for 4 years, that no matter how much I wish for my old life to come back to me, I have to live with the life I have now and that's okay.
Eva Lewkowicz
The art that is being submitted represents hardships that my brother has faced during his medical journey with long covid. It also represents the challenges that the rest of the family experienced as my brother lost so much in the last two years. The tears he cried are just as real as long COVID and we want people to recognize that!
Emily Rozee
This is a piece showing my full- body experience of long covid. Sometimes I can only lie down; I miss a lot of school and have very little energy to play, exercise or even shower. Long covid stole my life.
smad by Hadley Thompson
She describes her brain as "smad" at her worst which means sad mad.
ok by Hadley Thompson
jhappy by Hadley Thompson
She describes her brain as "jhappy" at her best which means joyful happy.
My Family's Long COVID Story by Jennifer Thompson
This piece of artwork shows how my family has been affected by Long Covid and all the different symptoms we each have.
A Day with Long COVID by Charlotte Hedman
This poem is about how I feel living with Long Covid. I wrote it both to say how I'm feeling and thought it would resonate with the millions of people who are going through the same thing.
Journey through Long COVID by Charlotte Hedman
This poem tells of where I'm at in my journey with Long Covid right now.
3rd Canadian Symposium on Long COVID
Art for the 4th Canadian Symposium Art Gallery Coming Soon
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