Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you. – Ovid
It’s not lost on me that the definitions of “patient” — as both an adjective and a noun — relate to each other. Adjective — “able to accept or tolerate delays, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious.” Noun — “a person receiving or registered to receive medical treatment.”
Some months ago, I was approached by Tamra King, the CEO of Harbor Community Health Centers, about hanging art in the clinic at 6th and Grand. I immediately thought of a fellow Gaucher disease patient, Ted Meyer.
Artists Dylan Mortimer and Ted Meyer in front of Mortimer’s art at the Harbor Community Health Centers clinic on 6th Street. (photo: Linda Grimes)
Ted is a nationally recognized artist, curator, and patient advocate who helps patients, students, and medical professionals see the positive in the worst life can offer. His decades-long project “Scarred for Life: Mono-prints of Human Scars” chronicles the trauma and courage of people who have lived through accidents and health crises.
Harbor Community Health Centers is a trusted provider of state-of-the-art health services for men, women, and children throughout San Pedro and the surrounding Los Angeles and South Bay areas. Their mission is to provide quality, comprehensive healthcare and supportive services to those in our community, regardless of their ability to pay.
Founded more than 50 years ago, they began as the “storefront” Harbor Free Clinic in 1970, and today, the clinic features two locations in San Pedro — a general care clinic and a location dedicated to pediatrics.
Ted agreed to curate a show of art in the clinic and introduced me to Dylan Mortimer. Born with cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder primarily affecting the lungs, Dylan has already beaten the odds.
The average life span of those affected is about 37 years old; Dylan is 38. A double lung transplant in January 2017 literally gave him a new life and a transformation, which he pours into his work.
As a person whose soul case also came with serious life-threatening issues, Ted, Dylan, and I connected over the day-to-day issues we’ve encountered along the way to lead a meaningful life, give back to our communities, and find healing through the arts.
As many of you know, ten years ago, on an April First Thursday ArtWalk, I found myself waking up five days later to the realization that my body had undergone major surgery to repair a delaminating aorta. Instead of wallowing in the morbid aspects of the defects in our bodies, we found comfort and connection in each other’s life-affirming stories.
Dylan still works predominantly with paint and glitter on cut paper, and his post-surgery work now features anatomical or medical images, like cells and lungs. Instead of appearing clinical or sterile, they embody movement and evoke the spiritual.
Prior to receiving his new lungs, he admits glitter served as a cover, distracting the viewer from seeing the artist as a person with a life-threatening illness. Now, he uses the glitter as a celebration.
Artist Dylan Mortimer poses with some of his work. (photo: Linda Grimes)
For Dylan, to behold the power of healing against the backdrop of pain can be a spiritual experience. A former pastor of ten years, he is influenced by the stories in scripture, talking about being both overwhelmed by the beauty and feeling terrified when experiencing the divine.
These are conversations he wants to help create and to be a part of, and by introducing himself as a patient, he has connected with his audience through their mutual health issues. It’s been a profound experience to share the message of hope offered by his new health, and it’s not a message he takes lightly.
The public can see Dylan’s work, hung on the walls of the Harbor Community Health Centers clinic at 6th and Grand, to be inspired by his life-affirming artworks. Dylan’s art show will be up through the end of the year, and we expect to have more art hung by patient artists in 2025.
The clinic is open during the week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is located at 539 West 6th Street in San Pedro. spt
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