Walnut Gallery features the work of Birmingham-based artist Gary Chapman, opening April 29 from 6-8 PM. Admission is free and open to the public.
From the artist’s statement:
Gary and Bernadette’s daughter Sadie, was born in 1996 with a serious heart defect (hypoplastic left heart syndrome) and this is the catalyst for the exhibition. Over her first 18 years Sadie had two open heart surgeries, one at 9 months and the second at 8 years old. In the Fall of 2014 she moved to New York where she was accepted into the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute. After one complete term and into the second term in early 2015, Sadie’s heart began to fail. It was determined she would need a heart transplant. After weeks of testing she entered Children’s Hospital in Birmingham and began her long wait for the ideal donor heart.
Sadie and her family waited 108 days.
The transplant took place on July 8, 2015.
The family is forever grateful to a 29 year old, man who sadly lost his life but had the forward, selfless and compassionate vision to save another through organ donation.
It has been an indescribable and tumultuous year for the family, each finding their own way to cope. While this exhibition might well be seen as the product of a cathartic process, it is also a celebration. In late March, Sadie returned to New York where she is again studying acting at the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute.
GOD SPEED SADIE CHAPMAN