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Vernon artist says thanks with fundraiser for Vancouver General Hospital

Art from the heart

Vernon artist Raffaella Vaz has launched a fundraiser event to give back to Vancouver General Hospital.

Originally from the Dolomite Mountains of Northern Italy, Vaz snowboarded her way around the world before landing in the Okanagan.

She's an award-winning ski and snowboard graphic artist and resident artist at Donek Snowboards in Colorado.

Diagnosed in 2019 with life-threatening lung and heart disease, Vaz previously was an accomplished snowboard coach in the valley.

She's raising money for the VGH Foundation "in gratitude for her own life-saving and ongoing heart and lung treatment."

For the month of May, VazArtGallery.com is donating 50% of proceeds from prints of her latest acrylic painting ‘Moose on the Water’ to the hospital's cardiothoracic department.

The prints are available at Butcher Boys in Vernon or on Vaz's website.

Vaz was diagnosed with thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension, a rare life-threatening heart condition cause by blood clots found in the arteries around the lungs.

She spent 16 weeks at VGH and flew to Toronto in June 2019 for life-saving surgery on her lungs. She is on 24-hour oxygen treatment.

Vaz is mother to five-year old daughter Billie. Her husband is Olympian snowboarder Crispin Lipscomb. They work together as a team at Vaz Art, creating wood, canvas and natural art pieces.



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