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Artists with Huntington's disease create exhibition

Christopher Mace
BBC News, Gloucestershire
Huntington's Disease Association Woman with brown curly hair in a black top with small white dots seen from behind, with her face turned to the right, painting a canvas on an easel. She is painting an abstract, with blocky blue and green colours.Huntington's Disease Association
Kate is one of eight artists at the exhibition who have Huntington's disease.

A group of people with the same "debilitating" disease have created a "joyful" art exhibition.

Our Creative Journey has been put together by eight people with Huntington's disease in Gloucestershire.

The Huntington's Disease Association (HDA) said the event will highlight "the importance of art for improving the wellbeing of people living with debilitating and incurable illnesses".

The five-day exhibition is being held at St John Baptist Church in Cirencester between Tuesday to Saturday.

The condition is caused by a faulty gene and leads to the progressive loss of brain cells, affecting movement, mood and thinking skills. It can also cause aggressive behaviour.

Huntington's Disease Association Open-backed dress made from different pieces of drinks containers. The straps are made from the pull-rings from aluminium cans, with a string woven through.Huntington's Disease Association
Artist Charlotte designed this dress, made from drinks packaging.

The show is a joint project by artists Bert and Elise Holland, Charlotte, Clair, Evie, Kate, Spencer James and Steven Hart.

Carol Dutton, specialist adviser at HDA, said: “The initial idea for an art exhibition came about during the Covid lockdown on one of our online Huntington's disease group meetings, when we discovered how many accomplished, talented artists we had in the Huntington's disease community in the locality.

"For some, art is a way to focus, distract from symptoms or find purpose and joy.”

Huntington's Disease Association A series of images on fabric squares, sewn onto a canvas. They show trees and stars. The fabric squares are arranged in a patchwork of blue, yellow, orange, red and brown.Huntington's Disease Association
Elise's mother says she enjoys making her artwork.

The eight artists include father and daughter, Bert and Elise.

Bert has Huntington’s disease, and his daughter has the rarer form of the condition, Juvenile Huntington’s disease where symptoms start before the age of 20.

“Elise is able to spend time every week creating her artwork and she derives such pleasure from it.”, said her mother, Alison.

Huntington's Disease Association A man with a beard nailing studs into a dining chair, to secure a cushion.Huntington's Disease Association
Spencer James used to upcycle furniture as a creative outlet.

Another of the artists, Spencer James, left his job when his symptoms worsened, and for a time he upcycled broken furniture.

Parents Phil and Charlie said: “As time moved on and he could no longer use a brush or sander, he found other ways to express his need to create.

"Using an iPad he now creates abstract images using different pallets and brushes and manipulates them with his fingers, which we print onto canvas and velvet.”

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