It’s Saturday morning and I’m feeling inspired … and a wee bit proud of myself. That last part is not something that I say or write often, if at all. Particularly not since late 2018, when I developed a mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to my rare autoimmune and neuro-inflammatory disease.
CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, also known as Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy or RSD) is responsible for my MCI. It also causes chronic neuropathic and joint pain in my right hand and arm, along with a long list of other localized and full-body symptoms. Trust me when I say that it’s a bizarre and difficult-to-treat condition. You don’t have to take my word for it, though; physicians and researchers say the same thing:
Because of the varied symptoms, the fact that symptoms may change over time, and the difficulty finding a positive cause in some cases, CRPS is hard to treat.” (1)
So… why am I feeling proud this morning? Thanks so much for asking! I’m quite pleased with myself as I’ve just managed to finish reading the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (2) by Betty Edwards – while completing all of the drawing exercises in the accompanying (optional) Workbook (3). In other words, I’ve just finished an entire book-based drawing course – by myself, and despite my cognitive impairment.
This was really quite a challenge for me, as I had to read the book just a few pages at a time or my cognitive issues would kick in. Luckily the workbook provided illustrated descriptions and examples for each exercise, without which I don’t think I’d have been able to finish this self-directed learning project.
But I did! I’m proud of myself, for sticking with it through the sections and exercises that were most challenging – and yes, frustrating – for me. And, of course, that I managed to adapt to drawing without a fully functional right hand, because of the CRPS. I’m also proud of how I did it, within only 6 weeks.
The title of this post is “Drawn & quartered”, because there are four reasons for which I’m feeling proud of myself. The first two were that I completed this learning project despite both my MCI and my ’wonky’ right hand. Third was for finishing it all within my self-imposed six-week deadline; a 284 -page book, a 153-page workbook, and forty different drawing exercises.
DIY ‘art therapy’
The fourth source of this bout of self-pride is that learning to draw was part of my semi-DIY (do it yourself) and at-home ‘art therapy’ plan, for dealing with this mostly invisible illness and managing my chronic pain life. I’d originally planned my own ‘art therapy’ program, to begin in March of last year, built around a wide range of in-person creative courses and workshops.
It took quite a bit of investigative time and effort, but I was able to find a range of these activities through more than a dozen local art initiatives, community centres, and libraries. I had focused only on those offered either for free or at very reasonable prices, as I’m now on a limited income through long-term disability insurance coverage.
At the time, I was quite proud of myself for putting all of those activities together into a cohesive and wide-ranging plan – and with a limited budget. These ‘winter 2020’ courses and workshops were scheduled to begin in March of last year, and all of them were of course cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
By 2021, many organizations began offering virtual versions of these types of activities, so in January I set a goal to do more research and find some that would work for me. Each session had to last not much longer than an hour or two, for example, or my cognitive issues would kick in and I’d be unable to keep following along.
I’d already found that ZOOM or other virtual platforms are more of a cognitive challenge for me than in-person activities, so I decided to limit myself to one form of the creative arts. Watercolour painting, I decided, would be my focus. It’s an art form that I’ve always loved, and I’d already bought some of the supplies in preparation for last year’s cancelled course.
Other considerations for me were that watercolours wouldn’t require a lot of space, nor any solvents or products that might trigger my asthma. I’ve already been on a ventilator three times, years ago, for severe asthma attacks, so now avoid any products that might irritate my airways.
After over a year, I’m proud of myself for starting over and reworking my entire DIY art therapy plan based on virtual activities this time around. It would have been easy to tell myself to just wait until the pandemic was ‘over’, or until enough people had been vaccinated for herd immunity to become a possibility. It felt as though my plan had been on hold for too long, though, and I didn’t want to wait another year.
Drawing to a close
Are you wondering how I ended up doing a self-guided drawing course, if I’d planned to focus only on watercolour painting? Well, it turns out that they are related. As soon as I began trying to learn to paint with watercolours, I realized that I first had to sketch out my composition… and at that point I could really only draw at a stick-figure level! To be able to improve my painting skills at all, I’d first have to improve my drawing and sketching skills.
You can see what I mean in these two photos, of my initial sketch and then partially-completed watercolour painting of a barred owl. The owl was sketched from one of my old photos, taken during a visit to a local wildlife rehabilitation centre, and then I drew in the forest background from a photo I’d taken of another bird… I didn’t want to paint this beautiful bird sitting on a post at the wildlife centre, with buildings in the background; in my painting, at least, the owl will be in the wild!
Sketch & photo ©Sandra Woods 
Watercolour painting & photo ©Sandra Woods
Written in the 1970s and updated several times since, the 4th Edition of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (2) discusses some of the same concepts of brain plasticity that are covered in several of the recent chronic pain textbooks and medical journal articles that I’ve read. I found it fascinating that some of the concepts currently being applied to chronic pain research and therapies can also be relevant in developing one’s artistic and creative skills – such as drawing.
Now, with some luck and lots of practice, I’ll be better able to sketch out my planned paintings onto watercolour paper; to translate what I see in my mind’s eye into the alchemy of paint and water on paper. Stay tuned for updates, as my DIY art therapy plan progresses.
Thanks, as always, for stopping by. Whatever you do today, I hope you do at least one thing that brings you joy – that brings a smile to your face. Keep safe, and look after your well-being as well as your health – as best you can!
References
(1) National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS); the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Fact Sheet. Website. Updated 14 Oct 2020. Online:
https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/Patient-Caregiver-Education/Fact-Sheets/Complex-Regional-Pain-Syndrome-Fact-Sheet
(2) Betty Edwards. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: The Definitive, 4th Edition. 2013. Penguin Publishing Group. Paperback. ISBN-13: 978-1585429202. Details:
https://www.drawright.com/bettys-books
(3) Betty Edwards. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Workbook. 2012. Penguin Publishing Group. Paperback. ISBN-13 : 9781585429226. Details:
https://www.drawright.com/bettys-books