The Tribune

By JEFFARAH GIBSON

Tribune Features Writer

STUDENT artists from the College of the Bahamas took over the Ladder Gallery to depict a five-part concept of wellness.

To achieve true success, wellness must be considered on a physical, emotional, social, financial and spiritual level. The Salus Project, a student art production, reflects these five themes in the Ladder Gallery exhibition.

It was Dr Graham Cates and wife, Nurse Anita Cates, who brought this concept of art, beauty and wellness together.

"We know the value of health and wellness and we thought how beautiful it would be to have others in this conversation of health and wellness. When we look at wellness it is holistic and we thought about the five elements that contributes to wellness. We invited several student artists to be part of the conversation through their artwork," Dr Graham Cates told Tribune Arts.

The five artists exhibiting work include: June Collie, Jeffrey Meris, Yutavia George, Preston Hanna, and Kachelle Knowles.

June Collie tackled the social element of wellness. Through her piece she demonstrated how taking pleasure in close and meaningful relationships can contribute positively to the health of a person.

"My paintings are about how I see the world, as this big, bright beautiful, surreal thing, that no one can predict. And because no one knows what's going to happen I always felt persons waste too much time trying to prepare for the future instead of enjoying the present," said Ms Collie.

"What I paint is me enjoying the present, having nothing to worry about; being "selfish" as I call it. To me my paintings represent my freedom, spontaneity and vulnerability. And what I wanted to do is show how I share this with my family and friends.

"With the Salus Project I was able to do this. I would like people to understand that having a meaningful relationship, respecting yourself and others and creating a support system that includes family and friends is very important to wellness. All at the same time learning that it is better to live in harmony with others and our environment than to live in conflict with it," she said.

"Seven" by Kachelle Knowles represents the spiritual aspect of wellness. In this piece Knowles depicts the connection between the spirit and the body.

"As human beings, we are able to create an unseen link to a higher power and after embarking on a personalized journey, possibly discover one's true self. Each color represents the seven different forms of energy within ourselves relating to both our physical bodies and our consciousness, for example, instinct, creativity, will, power and love," said Ms Knowles.

"Seven phrases each sit behind their corresponding forms as steps to get one closer to a spiritual mindset. The words seemingly blend into the background to create a metaphor of one having to search for his/her own answers rather than it being obvious to them. The threads show the journey; for each form there is no beginning or end but the process of wellness is never-ending and creates a visible unity in the spirit," she said.

When one of the elements of wellness are neglected or not properly nurtured it can impact the other elements. "Financial Wellness" by Preston Hanna shows this.

"I define financial wellness as being responsible for one's family. This work illustrates a man whose negative financial decisions caused him his family stability; more importantly caused him to lose his son."

The Salus Project is up at the Ladder Gallery for four weeks. The showcase will then move to The Salus Gallery at the Cates' Family Medicine Center on Blake Road.