SYLVANIA, OH (WTOL) - The River Centre Clinic treats people with eating disorders.
Part of the therapy involves something called 'healing art.'
Sharing her personal journey of recovery is Caroline Jardine.
The University of Toledo art major lost her identity and motivation as an artist because of anorexia.
Caroline turned to the clinic for help.
"So as I started to recover the importance of art came back to me," said Caroline.
Caroline's artwork is now on display and for sale at the River Centre Gallery in Downtown Sylvania.
The faces of her portraits reflect her struggles with anorexia and the process of recovery from the disease.
"And so I tried to communicate those facial expressions that are both my own and those around me as they watched me at my lowest point and as I started to recover and at the point I'm at now," said Caroline
One is a portrait of her late Ukranian grandmother over a helping of perogi she made.
Caroline says she never ate the ethnic delicacy because of her anorexia.
"I think about her every day and how she would be proud of me and how I can proudly say I eat perogi now," said Caroline.
Caroline still goes to the River Center Clinic as part of her recovery process.
She's moving past her disease.
"We like to say we can help people re-define themselves in a different way to potentiate their ability as a person through art" according to Dr. David Garner of the clinic.
And that's exactly what Caroline Jardine has done through her healing art.
