I just received some good news, to start the weekend off even more happily than usual! Last month I submitted one of my watercolour paintings to the Canadian Pain Society (CPS) Art Contest. It was the CPS’s inaugural or first-ever Art Contest, something I think they’re planning to do each year now.
There were 2 different categories for this Art Contest; one for healthcare professionals, researchers, and students/trainees, and another for (Pain) Patients like me.
The contest ran last week, to coincide with Canada’s National Pain Awareness Week (NPAW). Only CPS members were able to vote for their favourite artworks, though, in this “People’s Choice”-style Art Contest.
The winners were announced late today… Well, guess what? I won, for the (Pain) Patient category! The prize is a free year of membership in the CPS, not a trip to Europe, or a new car, or a million dollars – but that’s just fine with me. It’s the first time I’ve won an Art Contest with one of my paintings, and I’m absolutely thrilled.
It’s the perfect Art Contest for me to win – as a first one (hopefully there will be other wins!) – given that I began learning to paint this past January specifically because of my chronic pain condition. My goal was to use painting as a kind of DIY (do it yourself) combination of hand/arm movement therapy and brain-challenge, to help me deal with the effects of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS).
The timing is perfect as well, because November is CRPS Awareness Month and I’ve been using my art as a tool to raise awareness of this rare disease. Now I’ll be able to use winning this Art Contest to raise even more awareness of CRPS – it’s a true win-win situation.
This is an excerpt from the email I received late this afternoon:
First and foremost, we would like to thank ALL participants for making the inaugural CPS Art Show such a success!
The Canadian Pain Society, email to Sandra Woods, dated November 19, 2021
While all the entries were interesting and engaging, we are pleased to announce that the People’s Choice Awards from the 2021 CPS Art Show went to … (Trainee/researcher category) and Sandra Woods (Patient category).
We highly encourage all of you to share your artwork with us again next year”
Each submission for this Art Contest also had to include a brief essay about pain, which was part of the overall evaluation of each entry. The title of the artwork had to be “catchy”, and each artist had to provide a very short description of the technique(s) used in their work. This is the text portion of my entry into this Art Contest, along with my watercolour painting of a “Menacing Mosquito”.
The title of the artwork could be a maximum of 15 words, so I went with this: “Like a buzzing mosquito, chronic pain is impossible to ignore”. The description of the techniques or technologies used to create the art work could be up to 50 words, so I wrote:
“This is a watercolour painting, using the wet-on-wet technique. I first painted the mosquito with clear water onto wet cotton-paper, then added in each colour and gently guided it into place with a brush.”
Sandra Woods, online entry form for the 2021 Art Contest of the Canadian Pain Society, October 22, 2021
Finally, I had to write a mini-essay on how my art work relates to the theme of chronic pain, in language suitable for the general public rather than a scientific audience. For this section, each entry was allowed a maximum of only 200 words. This was the most challenging aspect of the entry process for me, trying to distill the essence of what I meant by using a mosquito to represent chronic pain. This is what I finally came up with:
This abstract mosquito represents the ever-present burden of chronic pain. If you’ve ever tried to fall asleep with a mosquito in your room, you know how distracting and even distressing it can seem! Chronic pain is much worse, buzzing its way into your mind and intruding in your thoughts. Pain makes it hard to concentrate at school, at work, or even on fun activities.
Chronic pain can also be menacing, because we expect our bodies to use pain to tell us that something is wrong. Appendicitis, kidney stones, labour pains – these kinds of pain signals are the body’s internal alarms, telling us to get medical help! In chronic pain though, the body’s pain alarm stays on – all the time – even after any injury has healed, or sometimes for no obvious reason. Not only is that mosquito buzzing around you all the time, imagine feeling that it is constantly biting you… when it isn’t.
Chronic pain is much worse than a mosquito bite, of course, but I’m sure you get the idea! Even though we’d like to swat pain away, like a mosquito, much more research is needed to make that possible. In the meantime, many people live with constant and long-term pain. Like a menacing mosquito, hovering constantly over your head for months, years, or even decades.”
Sandra Woods, online entry form for the 2021 Art Contest of the Canadian Pain Society, October 22, 2021
CPS members who logged on to the Art Contest website were asked to evaluate not only the submitted artworks, but also the accompanying text of each one. I’m not sure what proportion of the votes were for my painting, and how much influence the text portion of my entry had on voters – I’m just really happy to have won this one!
Most members of the CPS are healthcare professionals who treat pain (from doctors and nurses to physiotherapists, massage therapists, and other therapists), or researchers who study pain and biology, or students/trainees in medicine, and other biological sciences.
Then there are a number of people like me, (Pain) Patient members of the CPS who have joined because we’re involved in pain advocacy, pain education, and pain awareness activities. Many of us also provide (pain) patient/peer support to others living with chronic pain conditions. This is the category in which my entry won this Art Contest.
Thanks to every at the CPS who organized this inaugural Art Contest, and to all the members who took the time to vote – for any of the entries.
And to you, thanks so much – as always – for stopping by. I wish you some good surprises this weekend, and many moments of happiness. Look after yourself, and take care. I’d love to hear from you over on Instagram or Twitter, as I’ve had to disable the Comments feature here on the blog… it was just too much for me to handle on a daily basis, due to my cognitive issues.
All the best, and have a lovely weekend!
