{"id":1911,"date":"2013-05-07T15:46:19","date_gmt":"2013-05-07T19:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=1911"},"modified":"2013-05-14T17:12:03","modified_gmt":"2013-05-14T21:12:03","slug":"humour-and-poignant-words-on-show-in-melindas-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/humour-and-poignant-words-on-show-in-melindas-room\/","title":{"rendered":"Humour and poignant words on show in Melinda\u2019s Room"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dierdre and David Tomlinson were hailed for their bravery Thursday evening at the opening of \u201cMelinda\u2019s Room\u201d, featuring the art and words of their late daughter who lost her battle with extreme bipolar disorder.<\/p>\n

Her eclectic artwork, featuring poignant images of mothers and children, symbolism from the world\u2019s religions, mermaids galore, and a few tongue-in-cheek illustrations of prostitutes out on the job, now fills the walls of the Aurora Cultural Centre\u2019s Aurora Room gallery.<\/p>\n

Mr. and Mrs. Tomlinson were joined by their daughter Beth, and Melinda\u2019s son Booker for the packed opening reception for speeches not only from Mrs. Tomlinson, but also Mayor Geoffrey Dawe and Laura Schembri, Executive Director of the Centre.<\/p>\n

When asked, however, whether she saw what they were doing as brave, Mrs. Tomlinson rejected the idea. Their intention, she said, was to create a dialogue on mental illness, but also showcase their daughter\u2019s vibrant spirit. <\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted it to be a celebration of her life and I think it has been,\u201d she said. \u201cSeveral people have come up to say they were moved and you can still see the tears in their eyes. She drew a lot of people to her throughout her life and she was so diverse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Melinda\u2019s humour is evident throughout the exhibition. Her elder sister, Beth, said she believed it was important for Melinda\u2019s art to be acknowledged
\n\u201cIn losing my sister, I lost the person who made me laugh most in life,\u201d Beth told The Auroran. \u201cEvery time we would sit down she would tell me stories. She had an unusual job [working with Toronto\u2019s homeless] so there were always lots of stories about that and she always laughed things off \u2013 like the time she fell asleep and Booker glued all her hair together!<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that mental illness is something people don\u2019t like to go into and they don\u2019t want to acknowledge that it is more common that people think. I think it is important that people know as much about it as possible because it is a huge part of many people\u2019s lives. I wish she could be here.\u201d
\nSpeaking to the assembled crowd, Ms. Schembri paid tribute to Melinda\u2019s extreme creativity and highlighted the unique nature of the exhibition, Mrs. Tomlinson having approached them to showcase her daughter\u2019s work. It is important these images and words be on show to create a dialogue on mental illness within the community, particularly during National Mental Health Week this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe exhibition was a challenge in the best of ways, and it stretched us,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are happy to have had that experience and we have learned so much on so many levels. We want to thank the family for the opportunity that you have given us to share your daughter\u2019s life, to celebrate it, and to learn from it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very difficult and private subject and the family has opened this up in a very profound and generous way for us all to participate in discussion, celebration of their daughter who could be any one of our daughters, mothers, our sisters, our aunts.\u201d
\nIn paying tribute to her daughter, Dierdre underscored the humour her daughters brought into their lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey made emigration, charity fundraising, a major house fire and a couple of car accidents fun,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She spoke about her daughter\u2019s birth, her stint as an actress in community theatre and, after she left school after Grade 12, her passion for Arabic \u2013 earning her degree in the language \u2013 and travelling the world to perfect it. <\/p>\n

\u201cHer letters home were interesting and frequent,\u201d said Dierdre. \u201cI could feel and smell the places she visited. One Christmas I bought her an Indian duvet cover from an Oxfam shop. When unwrapped, it smelled like concentrated stallion urine. Once washed and dried, a fainter smell lingered.
\n\u201cAs soon as she opened it, she held it to her nose with delight. \u2018It reminds me of the smell of Indian markets!\u2019 she said, without realising she could have had a higher octane. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last few months of her life, she started painting and creating pieces inspired by Mexican and Indian art. Her subjects were often the disadvantaged, the bullied, the poor, the handicapped, bag ladies and strippers, eccentric paintings framed by several tiny written lines of text, cast a compassionate eye on people trapped in unenviable lives. She knew that well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Melinda\u2019s Room runs through June 15.<\/em><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir Dierdre and David Tomlinson were hailed for their bravery Thursday evening at the opening of \u201cMelinda\u2019s Room\u201d, featuring the art and words of their late daughter who lost her battle with extreme bipolar disorder. Her eclectic artwork, featuring poignant images of mothers and children, symbolism from the world\u2019s religions, mermaids galore, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-uP","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 04:23:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}