Tess Jaine Pierre O'Rourke with two of his children Jaxon and Joseph at the Mahitahi Colab.
Turning trauma into art Words: Adrienne Matthews
Like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, Nelson artist Pierre O’Rourke is breaking out of the crushing events of his earlier life to bring colour and joy into the world with his vibrant, life-enhancing art.
T
he backdrop of his life is not one he wants to dwell on but the miracle in his transformation can only be seen by knowing something of his past. “I had a traumatic childhood,” he says. “There was abandonment and abuse and I spent a lot of time in foster care. I could draw anything though. My dad was an artist and I wanted to be one too. I was alone much of the time so I hid in my own world of images and colours. It was a place where I could be my true self.”
quickly gone, along with my children who I was too
Years of self-abuse complicated by alcohol and drugs followed until Pierre found his feet in the world, becoming a civil engineer. “I moved to Australia to chase my career. I was doing the family thing, bringing in the wages and being a father until my ex-partner moved back to New Zealand with our children. I came back in 2019 and was taking a few weeks to get my life in order when I was mugged. I woke up in a plastic-surgery ward up north with my jaw split down the middle, quickly realising that life was never going to be the same again. With no help from ACC or anywhere else, all my savings were
that time I began to do a lot of soul-searching and
ill to care for. The only thing I seemed able to do was take up my pencil and start to make art again.” Pierre’s car became his home. With PTSD from his injury and his dad having just died, and no petrol to go anywhere, he sat in his car for three days doing art. “Miraculously, some good people rescued me and I was introduced to my amazing support worker, Faye Vickers, from the Salvation Army in Nelson,” he says. “I was found a motel room to live in and from healing.” Pierre is not bitter about his experiences. “I realised that before being beaten up I was playing a role people expected me to play,” he says. “I thought the world was about money and getting stuff, but when I lost everything and all I was left with was myself, I realised that those things weren’t my passion and that my true calling was art. I know exactly who I am now. The experience was serendipitous. I am sure that without the injury I would have come back to art
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