Artist Heather Strazza
Artist Heather Strazza began her art journey during her recovery process from a Traumatic Brain Injury on the left side of her brain.
"It's crazy to have something so wonderful come from something terrible and life threatening. But I'll take it no matter where it came from."
The day that changed everything: Sunday, January 18, 2015.
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During the very early morning hours of a cold winter morning, Heather was driving to choir rehearsal at her church in Montclair, New Jersey.
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The road had frozen, and two cars driving alongside Heather's lost control and collided with Heather's car. After the accident, Heather was sitting inside her car as she waited for the police to arrive to the accident scene, but as she waited, things took a horrific turn. Heather's car was t-boned by an SUV traveling at full speed. Heather's life was taken for an unknown amount of time, and she was rushed to the hospital for urgent care.
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Heather was in surgery for 12 hours, where her body lay lifeless for 8 minutes. Because of the swelling to her brain, Heather's left side of her skull was removed. She was unresponsive, had a torn brain stem, and was in a self-induced coma, along with many other complications that kept trying to stack the odds against her with each passing minute. She was given no hope from her medical team. Words like 'there's a 70% chance she will not survive', 'brain dead', 'we're so sorry', filled the reports to her closest family and friends. It seemed that the end was nearing for Heather.
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Heather's Hillsong NYC church family spread the word far and wide about the horrific events that she had just endured. There were thousands of people that prayed for Heather that Sunday and on the days that followed. Heather's hospital room filled with people singing, praying and believing for a miracle, and that against all odds Heather would make a full recovery. Heather's family and friends came with real faith for a miracle, and the power of prayer was very real to her life that day.
As the sun set and a new day rose, Heather was different. She showed a sign of life, her pupils had dilated! When Heather's brain injury was examined, the doctors found her brain stem to look like it was brand new, with absolutely no damage, and the brain stem is not an area of the body that can heal! It was a total miracle. During Heather's stay at the intensive care unit, there were many other miracles that took place, not only for Heather, but also for many other people that were in the ICU with her.
During Heather's path to recovery and in the many months of healing, therapy and re-learning that followed, it was suggested to Heather that she should paint. Heather was a little surprised to hear that suggestion, because she felt like she wanted to do something more "productive". After her very first attempt at painting again, she knew she had found a lifelong passion. Once Heather was able to resume life at her own home, she began to paint every day, all day, from morning to night. This was a very new process for Heather. Before the accident, creating art was not part of Heather's daily life, it was something that she would delve into once or twice a year. After the accident, Heather found herself seeing things differently, and with more passion. Heather fell in love with nature, color, lights, people, babies, and art in a brand new, and exciting way.
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"Each painting has a story behind it, and sometimes deeper than you may think. I love creating an image that tells your story and carries a deeper amount of love than I may think."
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These days, Heather is still in love with art. Creating art is something that fuels Heather and is an ever-growing passion. She immerses herself into her art, always trying to improve her technique and learn more about painting and the world around her. Creating art using mediums like oil, acrylic or watercolor, Heather paints on a variety of surfaces like wood, slate and canvas to capture nature, people, and the beautiful world around her. Heather aims to express, share and communicate to others through her work, one painting at a time.
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"And it is through one painting at a time but I am forever grateful for each brush stroke at a time."
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Shop Heather's artwork collection at Modern Ornament here.
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