The Brush, the Pen and Recovery: A Film Review

I listened intently. He was tall and handsome—in a rugged sort of way. With his dark moustache and brown cowboy hat, he cut quite a striking figure.

“They dried me out from drugs,” Ronson says as he adds some brush strokes to a vibrant landscape painting. Then he pauses and corrects himself. “Well, actually I dried myself out.”

My friend, Michelle, and I were at the Staircase Cafe Theatre in Hamilton, watching a documentary, The Brush, the Pen and Recovery. It was produced by Marvin Ross and directed by David L. Dawson, who is also a psychiatrist. The film features three artists from the Cottage Studio who struggle with schizophrenia.

The Cottage Studio is a unique mental health consumer arts program which promotes mental health and artistic potential. It’s housed in a building adjacent to St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church in downtown Hamilton.

Lorraine, who’s soft-spoken and articulate, talks about her struggle to stay in university in the 1970s. “I didn’t tell them about my mental illness because I knew they would take me away from school.” Despite her challenges, Lorraine graduated with a B.A.

She then spent three months in hospital. After being discharged, Lorraine lived in a boarding home. 

While staying at the home, Lorraine had to leave the door of her room ajar. One of her housemates would get up every single morning and start smoking in the room just outside. Each morning for ten months while she lived at the boarding home, the cigarette smoke drifting into her room woke her up!

‘I usually have to battle the voices everyday, at least a couple of hours everyday… ”  says Jude. She wears a knitted white hat with a visor. “Because I have schizophrenia, I don’t have to accept that’s the end. I can accept I have something to do in this world.”

Jude and her husband have lived in the same place for twelve years. “That has provided some stability,” she says.

It’s very rare to hear people talking openly and honestly about their struggle with mental illness. It’s rarer still for people with mental illness to allow themselves to be filmed while they talk about their challenges.

Yet Ronson, Lorraine and Jude do exactly that. And because they’re candid, the film conveys a powerful message—it’s very challenging to live with schizophrenia. I salute these artists for their courage and humility.

The film did leave me with some questions, though. Does creating art help Ronson, Lorraine and Jude manage schizophrenia? If so, how? And how is ‘the Pen’ in the title of the movie relevant? Somehow these issues weren’t addressed.

Contact me for all your professional writing and mental health advocacy needs.