2014 MSAA Art Showcase Entrants
View this month’s Artist of the Month
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Dani Red Hawk – Greenville, SC
Former dancer, actress, and choreographer. After no longer able to memorize lines, I retired from acting around 1994. A devastating injury to my ankle effectively ended dance career. Also been struck (indirectly) by lightning and severe electrical injury in 2001. In 2001 I became unable to work at all (I had worked as a legal assistant/secretary since ’94) and filed for disability. I lost almost everything and had rotated staying with different friends for two years until awarded disability in 2003. Life is now light years away from that time, but some emotional scars remain, particularly from some medical professionals who did not believe me for nearly five years.
The art I produced during that time was the last thread of self-esteem I had left. I credit the Art Recovery Program (Brian Marks) and Dr. Michael Manly and therapist Patty Burnett at the Greenville Mental Health Center for believing me, believing in me and holding on to that thread. My wonderful friends were the glue that held the rest of me together. I actually felt some relief after the diagnosis knowing that I was neither insane, psychosomatic or any other off-the-wall reasons for what was happening to me!!! (Ok, I have always been a bit eccentric, but that is another story)!
Electra
Oliver
Wolf