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West Van teen’s painting traces life in the presence of death

A purple columbine flower, some lilies, and a large sunflower. These are the objects that makeup a recently completed painting by Carrie Zhou, a Grade 11 student at Mulgrave School in West Vancouver.
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A purple columbine flower, some lilies, and a large sunflower.

These are the objects that makeup a recently completed painting by Carrie Zhou, a Grade 11 student at Mulgrave School in West Vancouver.

The painting’s composition is colourful and sunny, even though it channels a topic that’s been traditionally thought of --- incorrectly, as Zhou would point out -- as dark: death and dying.

For Zhou, who completed the painting as part of a long-term school project, she learned that even in death there’s plenty of life and colour to go around.

Her project was completed during a 10-month period where she interviewed three patients at North Shore Hospice and then created a large oil painting inspired by those intimate conversations.

“The firsthand experience of something like this has taught me a lot about death in general. The three patients were really open with me about talking about the subject, and I learned from all three of them that it isn’t something to be scared of,” Zhou told the North Shore News.

“They still are able to look at it through a very positive mind and say that it’s a natural process of life.”

Although Zhou didn’t know too much about end-of-life care or palliative care prior to undertaking her project, she learned quickly that many people’s assumptions about hospices are incorrect, she said.

“There’s a stigma around death and the hospital, and so that was my assumption at the beginning as well. I was really nervous because of that,” she said.

“But once I was there it wasn’t anything that I’d imagined. It was super warm, it was a place I felt comfortable being in, too.”

The first person that Zhou interviewed at the hospice also helped her get acquainted with the space, as the patient’s warm demeanor made her feel welcome and safe, she said.

During the course of interviewing this first woman Zhou asked her what the most important life lesson she ever learned was.

The woman’s answer: care for the important people in your life, the ones who are there for you when you’re sick, dying, or in need of help.

“She was very welcoming, a very warm person,” Zhou explained.

The bright set of lilies on the left side of the painting represents that first patient’s warmth and cheery glow.

The purple columbine flower represents another patient who displayed a kind of strength and free spiritedness, Zhou said.

“I remember him telling me that he didn’t believe in any medical or painkillers of that sort,” she said.

“I asked him what moment in your life would you like to go back go, and he said to the first time he fell in love.”

The last patient Zhou interviewed she described as having an artistic mind. She asked her where she felt most comfortable in the world.

“She described to me in really great detail about her house, and she’s talking about this little condo and if the sun’s shining and she’d sit outside and watch her cats, and her little garden, and I was mesmerized by how she described that setting.”

Zhou represented this patient by painting a sunflower.

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Carrie Zhou's completed painting - photo Cindy Goodman, North Shore News

When Zhou first conceived of her long-term art project, she originally thought she’d interview everyday people from around Vancouver. After an opportunity to work with North Shore Hospice and Lions Gate Hospital Foundation emerged, she said she was fully supported.

“They told me that if I had the courage to do it that they would allow me to do such a project like this.”

Zhou officially donated her completed painting to the hospice during a ceremony on Jan. 8.

Going forward she said she plans to continue contributing resources and time to the hospice. Her parents have since pledged a $10,000 donation to the hospice, according to Lions Gate Hospital Foundation spokeswoman Yolanda Brooks.

Unfortunately, all three of the patients that Zhou interviewed passed away before getting a final glimpse of her impassioned painting project.

She said it was initially disheartening but she felt compelled to continue because of the patients’ families. It was important to honour the memory of the people she spoke with who had taught her not to be afraid.

“It’s not something scary,” Zhou said, adding the patients taught her about death and dying. “It shouldn’t have the stigma in the world that it has today, that the word ‘death’ shouldn’t be scary at all to people. After hearing that from them it’s definitely opened up my mind to some of these concepts.”