Professional artist with Down syndrome strives to inspire joy from Central Saanich

If you ask Aviv Dekel why she’s riding her mobility scooter while wearing rainbow-coloured leggings and a pink unicorn hat, she’ll smile wide and proclaim, “Happy!”

Aviv’s mom, Miki Dekel, says her daughter (who was born with Down syndrome) is in the midst of a joyful journey that began when she was a child.

“[Aviv] said there was a really beautiful place she could go that was just over the rainbow,” Miki says. “And that’s where people could find happiness.”

Before Aviv could articulate that with words, Aviv was a four-year-old who tried to express it by covering the inside of an empty kitchen cupboard with coloured crayon.

“At first we weren’t very happy. But we finally thought that’s her space, let her do it,” Miki says, after showing me a photo of a beaming Aviv in the cupboard surrounded by scribbled hearts, flowers, and rainbows.

“She just wanted to share that feeling of happiness.”

Despite her exuberant creative expression, if you asked Aviv what she wanted to be when she grew up, she would have said a police officer.

“She wanted to catch the bad guys,” Miki says. “But not put them in jail.”

Aviv wrote and directed a home movie showing the kind of cop she wanted to be. It features her wearing a police uniform and transforming bad guys into good ones, by blasting something at them that makes a paper heart on their chest blossom.

Although Aviv struggles to speak, when I ask why she wanted to be a police officer, she proclaims with a smile, “Help people!”

When Aviv’s developmental obstacles made the prospect of a career in law enforcement a challenge, Aviv turned her attention back to art.

When I ask how that felt, she erupts in joy: “Good! Yes!”

Although a fused wrist makes needle point a challenge, Aviv started sewing bold images with bright thread, from blooming flowers to bright rainbows to beaming suns smiling at you.

“She kept doing it endlessly,” Miki says.

Aviv would spend a few hours a day doing it.

“And she still does!” says her mom.

Now Aviv is a prolific professional. The 25-year-old’s paintings and needlework have been displayed publicly, from the walls of art galleries to the sets of TV series (Netflix’s ‘Maid’ and Disney+ ‘Under the Banner of Heaven’).

Her latest solo exhibit is running at Victoria’s X-Changes Gallery through June 19.

Miki says her daughter’s commitment to being a force for good in the world has only grown.

“She isn’t as naive as she used to be,” Miki says. “She knows there’s a lot of things out there that need [happy] pictures to help people get through it.”

Aviv agrees that the greater goal she hoped to achieve as a police officer is now being realized as an artist.

“Makes me feel proud!” Aviv smiles from the seat of her mobility scooter, before taking off down the driveway – her unicorn hat’s rainbow wings flapping in the breeze.

She seems proud to show us that, instead of escaping over a rainbow to find what’s good, we can triumph over what’s bad by fuelling our journey here with joy.