About the Artist

Mary LaLonde

Margie LaLonde’s work in clay began in 2016, three years after she suffered a traumatic brain injury. She uses her understanding of psychology and trauma developed during her career as a psychiatrist to make sense of her lived experience of TBI. Her sculptures explore themes relevant to this experience, including loss of and reconstruction of self-identity. Many survivors grieve the loss of an integrated and valued self, and it can take many years after a TBI to re-construct a positive self-identity. Self-identity is not only affected by thoughts about one’s self, but also by one’s interactions with other people in society. Because many of the symptoms of TBI are invisible to the eye, understanding, validation, and acceptance are frequently not available from others. TBI survivors often feel devalued and depersonalized as a result.