Finding Me Beyond Illness - Shanali Perera
Dr Shanali Perera navigates the concept of creating dialogic canvases to help others understand illness visually, spark conversation and provoke thought around identity and illness. Her passion led her to be the commissioned artist for two creative campaigns: internationally on vasculitis and nationally on rare illnesses. Born and raised in Sri Lanka, she went on to study Medicine at the University of the West Indies and continued with postgraduate training in the UK. Developing Vasculitis, an autoimmune condition while specializing in Rheumatology, forced her to quit her medical career. Losing herself to the illness she struggled with image and identity. Artistic expression helped to transform her life into a more meaningful way of living as she shifted roles from clinician to patient to becoming a person again. Finding Me Beyond illness is her first book sharing her abstract expressions of ‘the embodied invisible’ - a visual narrative portraying an honest representation of her relationship with illness.
GENRE: non-fiction Art
Blurb:
‘I control what I create . . .’ Says Shanali. Inspired by life rhythm and flow, her canvases were an outlet to transform her lived experience into one filled with balance, purpose and meaning as she shifted roles from clinician to patient to becoming a person again. Guided by the sheer emotion she feels, she uses art as a self-inquiry to capture her invisible space within, making it visible to others.
