The Art of Recovery: Bone marrow transplant recipient expresses health journey through sculpture

SALEM – Salem resident and artist Valerie Rosenburg will be celebrating her first anniversary after being diagnosed with a disease called Myelodysplastic Syndrome, also known as preleukemia, which nearly claimed her life.After receiving a bone marrow transplant last Thanksgiving with her brother Michael?s blood stem cells, Rosenburg is feeling stronger day by day and is eager to tell her story.?I had a terrible recovery and I?ve had a lot of problems since, but I met a lot of sick people along the way and I decided that I needed to document what was happening,” she said.Rosenburg created life-size sculptures, cast plaster ad cement figures, ink drawings and relief prints she produced throughout her recovery, which she said document her physical, spiritual and emotional rebuilding after her difficult transplant process.?I was in the hospital for 50 days and it was very isolating for me,” she said. “My work represents subconscious images, some of nurses, but nothing directly medical. It was a way to keep busy.”Rosenburg will have her artwork on display at the Abbot Public Library at 235 Pleasant St., in Marblehead from Dec. 2-30. The opening reception for her show entitled “Rebuilding” will be on Dec. 9 from 2-4 p.m. in the Virginia Carten Gallery.Dedicating the upcoming show to an “army of people” including her immediate family and medical team at University of Minnesota Fairview Medical Center, Rosenburg said also thanked blood donors who she said kept her alive until she could produce blood again on her own.However, the sounding board that perhaps pulled her through her darkest days was her love of art.?When I could not talk or eat, I could draw,” she said. “When I was scared, I would draw and when I was closest to death, I still drew. Now I am able to live again and as I continue to grow stronger, my artwork shuffles alongside me naturally documenting my overall rebuilding.”A graduate of Swampscott High School and Massachusetts College of Art, Rosenburg?s work has been shown in galleries throughout the Greater Boston area and shares an artist studio space with her mom, Leslie, in Lynn at LynnArts, Inc.?My mom immediately moved to Minnesota, where I was at the time of my diagnosis to be with me for four months,” she said. “I couldn?t have been more blessed to have her with me because it was a really rough ride.”Now that Rosenburg is on the road to recovery, she said she is planning to switch career paths and enter the world of art therapy to help other patients in need.?I have some limitations and I?m considered disabled, but I?m going to focus on going back to school soon,” she said. “Only 50 percent of people live after getting a transplant and if I didn?t get one, I wouldn?t have lived another month. So, I?ve really been living life day to day ever since.”Artwork will be priced for sale at the event. For more information contact the Abbot Library at 781-631-1481.