Young B.C. artist says Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside saved his life
Being able to set up for a public art show every Saturday has been a long journey for Criss Blake Cook.B.C. Indigenous artist creates canvases on streets of DTES – Jun 25, 2022Story continues below advertisementWhen COVID-19 hit in February 2020, Cook said he caught a cold and had to isolate until his symptoms disappeared.Read more:
‘The same sadness and more lives lost’: Frontline workers reflect on 5 years of B.C.’s overdose crisisAfter taking a break to visit a friend in Vancouver, Cook said he returned home, quit his job, gave away his dogs and began living in his shed, where he got into hard drugs and alcohol.Two more suicide attempts would follow, he said, before a friend encouraged him to move to Vancouver.
By November 2020, Cook was living at the Union Gospel Mission and trying to stay sober as doctors addressed his mental and physical health. He would relapse and survive a sixth suicide attempt in under two years in August 2021, before officially entering recovery at UGM.Criss Blake Cook in recovery at Union Gospel Mission in Vancouver.Cook, who’s sketched all his life, started to draw again and began gifting his art to the men in the program.
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