How turning to art helped one Southsea woman overcome the trauma of a brain injury

At home alone in 2014, Freya was dusting around the bottom of some shelves and accidentally knocked them, causing a heavy ceramic pot to tumble down from a high shelf.

It cracked Freya on the head, knocking her unconscious for two-and-a-half hours.

"When I woke up, I did the childhood thing of rubbing it and thinking: ‘There, there, it will be better soon’. I just did that to myself because I was alone, but when one of my friends came over she said: ‘You know what? You're talking gobbledygook,’ and insisted on taking me to QA.”

Freya is very familiar with Queen Alexandra Hospital at Cosham – she had worked there for about 10 years conducting massage, aromatherapy and creative arts sessions.

“When I went into A&E they went: ‘Oh my god, it's you, what are you doing here?’” she recalls. “They were quite surprised that I survived those two-and-a-half hours, but I thought, well, I wasn't ready to die yet! It's not my time to go.

“From then on, I've just been on a path of healing and it's a slow journey when it's a traumatic brain injury. As part of it, I was left with intense noise sensitivity which I still have to this day.

“Very fortunately there were no bleeds at all, but they said to me: ‘Don't knock your head again’.”

Unfortunately for Freya she has been subjected to a further trio of freak accidents since the initial head injury.

“I’ve had three concussions since then, they were just weird things that have happened and they've really set me back.

“First of all a woman in the pasty shop in Gunwharf Quays slipped on the floor in the rain and pinned herself around my neck, pushing me back into the door with her full force. The staff in the shop looked after me, but the lady just picked herself up, said: ‘Sorry,’ and walked out.

“Then a year or so later train doors closed on my head without any warning as I stepped on to the train.

“The last one was really bizarre – it was in the Cathedral of all places at an art evening, would you believe? Someone was throwing a camera up in the air to a mate. They misjudged it and it fell on my head.

“They all added to the impact of what happens to the brain, and they do know that once you've had a knock that you need to be very careful. And I have been very careful! Since about 2017/18 I've been a very good girl.”

Given her new sensitivity to noise, Freya had to find new ways to occupy herself.

"At first I couldn’t read a book – there were too many words – and I was overwhelmed, or watch TV – there was too much colour and noise, it was sensory overload. I couldn’t use my tablet either – there was too much to process.’

“That was so hard for someone who lives life through colour, but I built it all back up in tiny increments.”

And this is how she eventually came to pick up the paintbrushes – creating bright, vibrant artworks.

“It all came after the accident,” the 75-year-old explains. “Before the accident I was always into sewing – I had been since I was a child, I loved it. I made my own clothes and bags and things. I did knitting and stitching as well.

“But after the accident I was looking for something to do and thought: ‘I've never painted before. I'll get some paints and a brush and some paper,’ and I found I could do things I didn't know I could.

“It was amazing.

I talked to people who were involved in recovery from injuries and they said sometimes when there is a blow to the head, it wakes up a dormant bit inside us. I found I could paint! I didn't know I could.

"At that stage I painted, I did lots of canvases and people bought them.”

However fate intervened again and Freya felt forced to give up this new path.

“After that I went deeper into the problems with noise and my head, and I had to give it all up because I couldn't cope. I stepped back from it all and I didn't do any of it for many years.”

But the Southsea-based artist is nothing if not an optimist. And she found positives from the pandemic and the slower pace of life it enforced on us.

“If I think us having a very different life over the last three years, being in silence was wonderful. Because I was away from noise and when you go into those quiet, silent spaces you start to hear yourself more. You get in touch with the real ‘you’. Although I was isolated, which was quite concerning because I'm usually quite an outgoing, gregarious woman, I found the time to just be with me. It was a wonderful gift.

“I always try to find ways to look at things in a positive way – yes, the accident was nasty and horrible but I always look to see what changed in my life, how can I look for a positive? I thought, I get some time to me, I get to spend more time out walking on the beach, looking at the beautiful sea, looking at trees, listening to the birds. I live my life differently – it made a big change. It makes you realise what's important.”

And eventually she found a way to return to doing her art.

"It was probably 2022, I was chatting to someone and they offered me an opportunity to caretake their studio space twice a week, to see if I could get back in touch with my art and do something for me again.”

This turned out to be Portrayal Studio in Marmion Road, Southsea.

"It was a wonderful opportunity. It really got me to thinking – it's a really quiet space, it's just me in there, nobody else, so I have the silence, the peace that I need.

“Sometimes I paint, sometimes I create with air-dry clay, sometimes I stitch – I can do what I want, and it's part of my ongoing healing, and I just love it. I had to put it all down for a long, long time, and I am now fully reengaged with it and loving it. One of the magical things that came out of it was that someone from Portsmouth Creates (the city’s body for highlighting the creative arts community) was passing the window at the studio, walked in and said: ‘I love this beautiful, colourful art! Who did that?’

“Out of that, I now have this most wonderful exhibition in Southsea Library window. I am thrilled to have this.”

Freya's artwork is on display at the library in Palmerston Road until September 13.

But she is also keen to use this chance to show how an accident like hers is not the end of the world.

"The exhibition is not just about me, per se, it's showing other people, here I was a broken woman, who went through all of this trauma and I've come out the other side, and it's like saying we're not stuck in the dark. There is healing going on."

She will also be at the library from midday to 2pm on Saturday, September 9 and Tuesday, September 12 to talk to anyone curious about her story or her art.

"I just want to invite people to talk to me at the library and find out what I do. I've also decided, and this is a biggie for me, I want to offer some one-to-one sessions at an affordable price – I'm not capable of teaching 10-12 people like I used to in the past. At long last, I'm thinking, yes, I can teach again!”

Search for Freya Perry: Enchanting Art on facebook.com.