Many artists use their work to tell a story, and Whitney Trisler Causey is no exception. However, the stories told through her latest series of painted portraits aren’t entirely her own; they belong to her daughter, M’Lynn, and children much like her.

M’Lynn has Angelman syndrome, a rare neurogenetic disorder, and Causey uses her vibrantly-colored portraits to raise awareness of the disorder while challenging society’s views on developmental disabilities.

“When you think of someone that is disabled, what is the first image that comes to mind?” Causey asks. “Usually, it’s not one of the portraits you’re looking at in the work. When people see the work, they’re like, ‘Look at these beautiful, happy children,’ and when they hear the diagnosis, their perception immediately changes.”

Each of the children depicted in the portrait series also has Angelman syndrome, and though they were born in the same year as Causey’s eldest daughter, most were not diagnosed as early as M’Lynn. Thanks to M’Lynn’s physical therapist, Melanie Massey, and Causey’s intuition, doctors were able to give M’Lynn a diagnosis at just 11 months old. But according to the Angelman Syndrome Foundation, most children aren’t diagnosed until they’re between the ages of two and five.

“If you’re not on top of it, doctors can really quickly say [they’re] fine,” Causey explains. “[But] those therapies are so vital at an early age.”

The vitality of the therapies Causey speaks of and the typically too-late diagnoses are why she has gotten other artists involved in her advocacy efforts. Causey’s an assistant professor of studio art at Louisiana Tech and invites students enrolled in her classes or involved with the college’s Visual Integration of Science Through Art (VISTA) program to collaborate with the Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics and the Angelman Syndrome Foundation.

ARTICLE BY STARLA GATSON PHOTOGRAPHY BY KELLY MOORE CLARK

LIFE IN PORTRAITS At right: Causey has painted her daughter, M’Lynn and more than 40 other children with Angelman syndrome. Below: Clinton, Ella, Whitney and M’Lynn Causey, portrait by Skylar Taylor.

Students have spent the spring quarter of the 2021-22 school year providing illustrations that help visualize different genotypes of the disorder. This not only allows Tech’s School of Design students to experience doing client-based work and build their portfolios, she explains, but also helps them feel as if they are a part of something bigger than themselves.

“My teaching style [includes trying] to be as vulnerable as possible; I tell my students what’s going on in my life, and I want to hear what’s going on in their lives,” Causey says. “Because they’ve heard me talk about M’Lynn and they’ve heard me talk about how difficult it is at times, they feel like they’re doing something that means something. It’s been really amazing, and I’m hoping this is something that continues.” Speaking of things that will continue, Causey’s portrait series will, too. Though the more-than-40 children she painted were just babies when they were captured on canvas, they, like M’Lynn, are now five years old. It’s time, Causey declares, for an updated round of portraits.

“I think it’s really important for me to continue this work and paint them as children doing normal things for them and provide them a place within art history [where they aren’t] ‘the other,’” she says. “Thinking about those with disabilities and developmental disabilities — it’s like they were never presented as just humans. It was like a sideshow or something.”

Though Causey is now confident in her decision to use her art as advocacy while encouraging her students to do the same, there was a time in the Louisiana native’s life when she wasn’t even certain a career in art would be the thing she pursued. Though she was exposed to drawing at an early age — she attended adult art classes with her mother at just five years old — it wasn’t until her junior year at Ouachita Parish High School that she began taking her own drawings seriously.

“I never took an art class, but when I was in 11th grade, I had to take it,” she recalls. “That’s when I started realizing I had this sensitivity to looking and seeing things a little bit differently than everyone else did. After 11th grade, my fine art teacher was like, ‘You need to be in talented art,’ and I got tested and was in it my senior year.”

The realization that she had a gift plus her teacher’s validation encouraged her to think about art more, but still, the idea of pursuing it professionally wasn’t on her radar when she started college, she says, “I was like, ‘I’m going to be an English teacher.’ And I honestly hate writing, so I don’t know what I was thinking!”

Causey admits her first year as a college student didn’t exactly go as planned — “I failed out because I didn’t want to be there, which I think a lot of students do.” — but in hindsight, this change of plans was the best thing for her. “I wish all students coming out of high school could go and work for a year or two and figure out who they are, what they want to do, and how to save their money,” she says. “I think that was another moment that let me step back, be creative, and play [with art] just for the sheer love of it. And then, when I went back to school, I was like, ‘Oh, I can actually do this.’ I took a drawing class, and I was hooked.” Causey’s second go at college began with a year at Delta Community College and a year at the University of Louisiana at Monroe before concluding at Louisiana Tech in November 2012 when she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.

To keep up with Causey’s Angelman syndrome advocacy efforts, see when the award-winning artist is exhibiting next, or find out where you can see one of the murals she, Bustamante, and their students have completed, visit her website, www.whitneytrislercauseyart.com.

“In undergrad, I had no idea what I was going to do, and it wasn’t until I came to Tech that I realized I could go to grad school for this.”

However, Causey reveals, she still had some reservations about continuing her education.

“When you’re in undergrad, you see grad students and think, ‘You’re so much better than I could ever possibly be,’” she says. “I could not picture myself there, and at that moment, I decided if I can’t picture myself doing that in the future, then that’s what I need to dive into — into the unknown, into that fear — because I feel like I do so much better under pressure and in things that scare me.”

Since she didn’t get to spend much of her undergraduate time as a Bulldog, Causey elected to apply to Tech’s graduate program. Besides, she explains, she was a newlywed and already committed to staying in the area; graduate school in Ruston just made sense. There, while pursuing her Master of Fine Arts degree, Causey began exploring multiple mediums and playing around with portraiture.

“That was 2013 to 2016, the height of social media, selfie culture, and all of that, so that was really connected to the work,” she recalls. “It was all about our perception of others, our perception of ourselves, [and] how you portray unseen characteristics through a painted portrait. Then, I was trying to bring attention to how all images are mediated through something, be it a computer screen, a phone screen, a television, or the news — we’re always getting something through someone else’s perspective or point-of-view.”

A love of portraiture wasn’t the only thing conceived during Causey’s graduate school years; during her last quarter as a student, she became pregnant with M’Lynn and began what would become one of the most taxing periods of her life.

“I graduated in May 2016, and on October 25, I had my daughter,” she recalls. “During that summer, I also got a visiting teaching position here at Tech. Then, in the spring of 2017, I applied for the full tenure-track assistant professor job.”

Right after Causey got her current job, M’Lynn got her Angelman syndrome diagnosis, and Causey’s motivation and priorities shifted. She says, “That was the moment I feel like my whole purpose in life changed. I knew that my work wasn’t just about painting portraits; there would be a deeper meaning moving forward.” Thus, the young mother’s advocacy efforts were born.

Now, when the artist isn’t painting portraits for Angelman syndrome awareness, standing in front of a classroom filled with eager art students, or spending time with her husband and two daughters (Causey gave birth to a second daughter, Ella, in August 2021), Causey makes time for yet another artistic pursuit that holds her heart: mural painting with her former instructor and current colleague, Nick Bustamante. The two have been partners in mural painting for the past decade, completing 11 large-scale works in the past five years alone, including several that can be spotted in Ruston.

Life as a wife, mother, artist, and professor is amazing, Causey declares, and though pieces of her journey have been less than simple, she resents none of it. “I feel very fortunate, even in M’Lynn’s diagnosis and the things we have to go through,” she says. “I just feel like overall, it’s made me a better person. It’s slowed me down enough to be able to see people and not just move through life so quickly — slow down and appreciate every person and who they are in general. That’s how I approach the classroom and the relationships I’m developing with the students. I want them to feel like they’re seen and heard.”

BY BEATRICE TATEM, PH.D., LPC-S, NCC, ACS

THE MONTH OF JUNE HAS ARRIVED. IT IS THE MIDDLE of the year and the midpoint of the growing season between planting and harvesting. June houses the day (20th) with the most daylight hours and the official day that kicks off the summer season. The month of June is cited as the prime time for weddings and the observance of Father’s Day, Flag Awareness Day and Let It Go Day. Increasingly, people are becoming aware and have begun to celebrate Juneteenth now a national holiday and LGBTQA Pride. Although, less known, during this time, Men’s Mental Health Awareness, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Awareness and Celebration of the Senses are recognized.

Last month I acknowledged in my article Mental Health Awareness Month and Mothers’ Day while highlighting my own mother a retired Social Worker. This month I am recognizing Men’s Mental Health Month while celebrating Father’s Day and my father. I wrote this article during an early Sunday morning in May. I had awakened once again with concerns about societal issues and the impact these issues are having on humanities mental health.

The state of our mental health is not a one-month event but a lifelong occurrence we should attend too daily. Life has proven to be unpredictable, mentally heavy and chaotic. Chaos is described as a state of disorder or confusion that appears in every facet of the human experience. While chaos is subjective it is different for everyone and is an inevitable sometimes unavoidable part of life. Chaos can be negative or positive and can be associated with both good and bad things. Depending on how you perceive chaos and chose to respond, the impact of chaos can be life altering.

I began my career in mental health during my young adult years. It was the start of a promising career I am now proud to have. I would also experience the greatest pain of my life…the death of my father. I can recall the loss as though it were yesterday. At the time I remember thinking about the special moments my dad would not be able to share with me. To heal from his death I began focusing on memories of our times together. My father was great with words. He would use words to normalize without minimizing my challenges, fears and yes feelings of chaos. He would say things like “you’re the alpha and omega of my life” to show his love and support while building my confidence and self-esteem. As a child when doing math “homework” he would remind me “once you have done your best girl even angels can’t do better.” When confronting stressors associated with teen years he would say “you could have done better but you could have done worse” be proud of what you have done. While enduring the demands of graduate school he would state, “be at peace with yourself and you will be at peace with the world”. Whereas, this has proven at times to be easier said then done I would later realize he was encouraging me to be self-aware, to have a clear view of self in the world and to be connected with my inner peace.

Recently, a young teen asked, “Dr. Tatem, how do you do it, how do you keep it together.” He stated, my life seems to be one ill after another, “my life is like a ball of confusion.” I exclaimed, “no way, that’s the title of my next BayouLife article.” Amazed that this teen knew this “oldie but goodie” we began to sing the Temptations 1970’s hit Ball of Confusion (That ‘s What the World Is Today). It was written when the world was in a state of confusion and many were attempting to make sense of the chaos and disorder at the time. I was taken by the similarities and thus the relevance of the song decades later. Consider the lyrics: Well, the only person talking about love thy brother is the preacher…And it seems nobody’s interested in learning but the teacher…Segregation, determination, demonstration, integration…Aggravation, humiliation, obligation to our nation; Ball of Confusion, that’s what the world is today…The sale of pills are at an time high, Young folks walking round with their heads in the sky, The cities ablaze in the summer time…Evolution, revolution, gun control, sound of soul…Shooting rockets to the moon, kids growing up too soon… Politicians say more taxes will solve everything, So, round and around we go, Where the world’s headed nobody knows Fear in the air, tension everywhere Unemployment rising fast.

Many have been challenged by the human condition of poverty, food insecurities, formula shortages, soaring gas prices, rising rent, inflation, student debt, teen suicide, unemployment on the rise yet hired help is hard to find, corona virus pandemic, political divisiveness, racism, bigotry, anti-Semitic beliefs, homophobic thinking that appears to be multiplying. The extreme ideological divides, attacks on Ukraine, shootings at movie theatres, concerts, churches, schools and now supermarkets have many asking when and where are we safe? There are those who have stated this is not who we are as a nation while others are asking who are we? The question what the world is coming too is now a statement of what we have become. When navigating the world each of us will experience conflict differently. It is up to each of us in a world full of chaos to be our own peace. As my father would say strive to be at peace with yourself so that you can go forth and be at peace with the world.

For more information about counseling services and outreach programming contact Dr. Tatem at Wellness Initiatives, LLC, 2485 Tower Drive, Suite 10 Monroe La 71201, 318-410-1555 or at btatem.bt@gmail.com.