Gary Bachers

When the artist submitted his master’s thesis in organic chemistry, excepts of which were later to be published in the Canadian Journal of Chemistry, or had his work published in Chemical Reviews, he had no idea of the enormous turn his life would take. He could not know that at the age 38 he would be struggling to write his own name. He had obtained his Masters in Science in Organic Chemistry and was Gold Medalist in Science. Four years later he had completed medical school. He was also an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Toronto in Piano Performance. A massive hemorrhagic stroke changed everything. He proved his doctors wrong by surviving the massive stroke. Yet, despite years of stroke rehabilitation therapy he would be left with right-sided hemiplegia loosing all use of his right arm and most devastatingly, with expressive aphasia. He had Broca’s expressive aphasia. Few understand its meaning or implications. The reality was that he could no longer express himself through either the written or spoken word. He could understand everything but could not reply except by gestures and the odd word or two. To counter the deep despair he was encouraged to try to draw with his left hand. To a man who was a perfectionist and had achieved so much, this proved a painful ordeal and resulted in painfully executed drawings. Slowly, he found that his art was developing as a “second language”