My Stroke of Insight
Feb 7, 2012 19:19:52 GMT -5
Post by mario on Feb 7, 2012 19:19:52 GMT -5
Updated: 5:09 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012 | Posted: 1:47 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012
S. Ind. exhibit will feature 5-foot-tall brains
The Associated Press
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. —
An Indiana brain scientist whose memoir about her recovery from a stroke became a best-seller has dreamed up an exhibit featuring giant brains which will be mounted around Bloomington this spring.
Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist, author and motivational speaker who lives in Bloomington, said her idea behind the Brain Extravaganza project was to remind people of the importance and complexity of the body's control center.
"Imagine brains all over town, connecting our community through appreciation of this beautiful organ," Bolte Taylor said.
The 22 5-foot-tall fiberglass brains included in the project will each be decorated by a different artist before they're mounted in early May around the southern Indiana city. They'll remain in place until the fall, reminding people of the power of the brain.
Bolte Taylor told The Herald-Times (http://bit.ly/zIpXBu ) there will be a patch of brains in town and another patch on the IU campus — with teaser brains at high-traffic areas.
Each brain display will cost $3,200 to produce. The cost will be covered by individual sponsors, whose names will be emblazoned on a plaque on the base of each display.
A southern Indiana man is mass producing the brains, which are being sent in shipments on the back of a flatbed truck.
Bloomington-area fiber artist Martina Celerin is working to give her personal stamp to one of 11 brains that are currently housed in a warehouse for artists taking part in the effort.
"When I first came in here I was all alone, and it felt as if I had entered a different world," she said. "It was almost intimidating because these brains are so huge."
Celerin worked in the warehouse recently using a glue gun to attach pieces of green-colored felt to one of the brain's hemispheres for her brain creation.
"My theme is bipolarism," she said. "One half of the brain is shaded in greens, and the other half will be shaded in blacks."
Celerin's brain is sponsored by the National Alliance For the Mentally Ill-Greater Bloomington Affiliate.
Another local artist, Joe LaMantia, is retooling his fiberglass brain sponsored by sponsored by WTIU with the theme of "communication." He's adorning it with pictures of people's faces and animals.
"The animals — frogs, kissing birds, a giraffe — represent the right hemisphere of the brain, where imagination is," LaMantia said. "The faces represent the left side of the brain, where writing and math are."
Bolte Taylor suffered a stroke in 1996 at the age of 37. Her 2008 memoir, "My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey" became a New York Times best-seller.
It describes how, as a neuroanatomist at Harvard University, she was fully aware that she was experiencing a severe hemorrhage in the left hemisphere of her brain.
After the stroke, she was unable to walk, talk, read, write or recall any of her life, and it took her eight years to fully recover.
The past seven years, she's been sharing her story and building a national following, and has made multiple appearances on Oprah Winfrey's TV show.
She said a movie about her life, directed by Ron Howard and featuring Jodie Foster as Bolte Taylor, is on track for late 2012, but events could delay the timing of its release.
