Bramble painting for Parkinson’s
CORKERY – Corkery’s Dianne Bramble is turning a creative and therapeutic outlet in to a fundraising opportunity raising money for the Parkinson’s Canada SuperWalk.
Bramble, a multi-discipline artist and nurse at the West Carleton Family Health Clinic was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2013. She’s been fundraising for research ever since.
This year, Bramble has reignited her passion for painting.
“I started painting again because my son loves to paint (Liam),” Bramble told West Carleton Online from her Corkery area home yesterday (Sept. 10). “I said I like to paint, so I started doing it. And it got out of control. I was doing four or five a day.”
Bramble used to spend a lot of time sketching years ago.
“With Parkinson’s my sketching isn’t what it once was, so I switched to abstract which isn’t a problem,” she said. “I find it really relaxing and it’s good for motor control. It helps with a lot of things.”
Since 2014, Bramble has raised around $15,000 for Parkinson’s disease research. She decided she would use her re-surfaced passion for painting to fundraise this year and created the fundraiser Painting for Parkinson’s.
“Once I started getting so many paintings, it almost started off as a joke,” Bramble said. “My son didn’t think I could sell one. And I did. I thought I could do this as a fundraiser, and I’ll keep doing it as long as people keep buying them.”
Bramble has created a Facebook page and is auctioning off her work. She also held a couple of drive-way sales and has shipped paintings to Kitchener and even Calgary (although Bramble says that doesn’t count because it was her aunt).
“A lot of the neighbours came out to the driveway sale,” Bramble said. “We have very supportive nieghbours here. This is a great neighbourhood.”
Bramble says one neighbour was even conducting a bottle drive for her fundraiser the very day West Carleton Online was interviewing her.
Bramble says Parkinson’s research has really advanced over the last few years with scientists focusing on some unique attributes associated with the disease.
“Why can we learn to do some things well and not other thing?” she said referring to celebrity spokesperson Michael J. Fox’s ability to play the guitar and hockey, but still greatly challenged by walking. “Why do we love chocolate so much?”
The official Parkinson’s Canada SuperWalk is virtual this year and takes place tomorrow (Sept. 12).
But the program continues to fundraise until October.
Meanwhile, Bramble has already finished the follow-up to her first book Genes: The Continuing Adventures of the Accidental Superhero.
Bramble calls it “a little darker than the first one.”
If you are interested in seeing some of the paintings Dianne Bramble has up for auction, click here.
