Hospital bed as easel

Andre Hall-Grusska is the Riverview Health Centre’s unofficial artist-in-residence.

Since his arrival there a little more than two years ago, the 63-year-old has used his second-floor bedroom as a studio and the long-term care facility as a sprawling gallery for the stencilled drawings born from his active imagination.

More than 60 original pieces at Riverview bear his signature — Hall-Grusska’s work is in the boardrooms, the waiting rooms and even CEO Kathleen Klaasen’s office.

“I see myself some day filling this whole hospital with my art,” he says after taking a few visitors for a walking tour.

Hall-Grusska, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at age 40, has been an artist for nearly 10 years. For most of his adult life prior to his diagnosis, he worked odd jobs — strawberry picking, factory labour, home renovation. But while living in Mexico a decade ago, he took a pencil and paper into his backyard to begin a new daily practice, creating symmetrical, mirrored linework drawings.

“I started to feel more relaxed and peaceful,” he says.

The artwork wasn’t just spiritually satisfying: the sustained focus and the physical control required to make his mandalas functioned as a kind of bodily therapy as the symptoms of Parkinson’s — tremors, muscle stiffness, loss of balance — intensified. “I use my artwork as a tool for me to control my Parkinson’s,” he says.

Hall-Grusska spends between half an hour and 10 hours per day creating art, working from his bedroom, the solarium, his hallway and, on warmer days, out in the courtyard, where he encounters inspiration in the form of hummingbirds and bumblebees. But most of his work originates in the room where he sleeps.

“I call it my art studio,” he says. “It’s where creativity happens.”

Because his posture has become stooped, Hall-Grusska uses his elevated bed as a pseudo-standing desk, spending hours working on his intricate drawings while leaning over the mattress. Always at hand is his wheeled cart, filled with Sharpies, pencils, stencils, rulers and metallic markers.

Above his bed-desk, he clips finished works for display and consideration, hanging each alongside surrealist paintings by Octavio Ocampo, an artist who inspired Hall-Grusska during his time in Guadalajara.

As soon as Hall-Grusska wakes up, his bed is converted to its most productive state. “Sometimes I get up and draw at 3 a.m.,” he says.

Over the past two years, Hall-Grusska has held small exhibitions of his work at Riverview, selling several pieces to visitors and staff members, donating others to the facility and his fellow residents.

Earlier this year, the artist decided to up his game by contacting the Arts AccessAbility Network, a regional non-profit dedicated to the inclusion of artists with disabilities within all facets of the arts community. Executive director Jenel Shaw was floored by Hall-Grusska’s prolific output and by his ambition to grow his practice and audience.

“As soon as I saw Andre’s work, I knew he would be a perfect fit,” she says.

With Shaw’s support, Hall-Grusska applied for his first arts grant and secured a showcase of his work in Prairie Theatre Exchange’s lobby set for January.

With the network’s help, Hall-Grusska is holding a one-day exhibition today from 1 to 4 p.m. in Riverview’s solarium, with 60 artworks on view and for sale.

“No story, no title,” he says, describing the show’s intention. “This is who I am. This is what I do.”

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca