Bryan S. Halls

Bryan S. Halls Biography

Canada, born 1978

Biography of Bryan S. Halls
By
Bryan S. Halls

Bryan S. Halls was born January 9th 1978 in Woodstock, Ontario, Canada. At twelve years old his family would move to Chatham, Ontario, Canada. In the twelfth grade at Chatham Colligate Institute Bryan found art. The next year he would leave CCI and Chatham and moved to London, Ontario, Canada to attend H.B. Beal secondary school and attend Bealart. There Bryan would learn to create on a more professional level but lacked to see eye to eye with his teachers and left the program once finishing his OAC high school year.
Bryan would take a year off from schooling but in 1998 would enroll into the Toronto School of Art to learn more traditional techniques so he could have license to break the rules of art in the future. Bryan would only attend two years of the TSA program before he was expelled at the end of his second year. This was due to the deterring mental health. At that time Bryan started to hear voices and became delusional, Schizophrenia was setting in but Bryan refused to get help and started to travel living in Banff, Lake Louise, and New York City. In 2001 Bryan would get the help he needed when he moved back to Chatham and move in with his parents but he wasn’t done looking to find his place in the world and moved to Windsor and finally ended up back in Toronto in 2002 to attend Jewelry Arts at George Brown Collage but dropped out after a semester to go to work as Drywall carpenter. Bryan would have this career for nine years till 2011 when his mental health started to go downhill and had to go on long term disability. He would move back to Chatham and once settled into his own place his father bought him art supplies to help aid in his recovery and soon enough would show his work in the Mental Health Networks Mental Health week art show. Bryan fell in love with creating and showing his work and to this day looks for every opportunity to create and display his art. Bryan still lives and creates in Chatham and art has become a focal point for his recovery and with it has helped him become the artist and the man he is today.
Bryan over the last twelve years has had solo exhibitions at St James Presbyterian church, Leamington Arts Center, and Artspace Chatham, as well as group exhibitions at the Thames Art Gallery and other locations with in Chatham-Kent. He looks forward with optimism to future endeavors and cannot wait to see what will comes next in his young artistic career.

Why I am a Christian artist

In 1999 I was attending  the Toronto School of Art in my second year. It was a small vocational school but it had an energy like non I had felt before. At that time I started to hear demons call out to me.  I would see demons in my every day life that were never there. This followed over into 2000. Soon enough these voices and delusions would take over my life. I lost everything and everyone.  Then one night I sat there on my bed knowing that I was in some trouble. No one can help me. Then I had an idea. So I got down on my knees and started to pray to the Christian God. I gave him my soul and told him that if he got rid of the demons and protect me from evil I would creat in his name glorifying his word, that this would be my promise to him. I then went to bed. The next day I woke a new man the demons were gone, no more evil voices no more demonic images.  God had given me something no one could, a new outlook on life. I was still  paranoid schizophrenic but at least l wasn't tormented. I then went to church for days after praying in thanks to my God for through me he worked a miracle.  I made a promise that night and I am not going to break it. I will create in the lords name glorifying his people and his word. I wasn't over night a good Christian it's taken years to hone in on that craft, but I know my soul is in a good place. Soon after in 2001 I started getting medical help and am doing well. The one thing that I live with now is that promise I made that spring night so many years ago. The more God gives to me the more content I am with my life. So for him I paint.

Why I paint in black and white

I am a person with paranoid schizophrenia and depression. I see the world with a jaded view. I see ugliness not only in my personal life but the current state of global affairs. I don't feel like right now at this moment in time the world is a colorful place. So I paint with black and white. The black is the world at hand and the white is the love of the Lord and his promise of salvation. I can't say I will always feel this way but until better times I paint without color.