Today I’m sending heartfelt thanks to the Canadian Pain Society (CPS), for including a feature in the Fall 2022 edition of their quarterly eNews newsletter about how I use art to draw attention to chronic pain. (1) Whether you’ve been following this blog regularly, or just hop in every now and then for an update, you’ve probably seen my artwork on each page; nature photos, paintings, sketches, or other original creations.
Back when I first began this blog, in the mid-2000s, I knew that I wanted each page to feature an image. A picture is worth a thousand words, after all! I wanted every image to be something different, unique, and personal to me. So I decided to use my own photos as the illustrations, unless there was some truly compelling reason not to for a specific post. All these years later, I branched out last year from nature photography to sketching and watercolour painting. More about that in a moment!
At first this blog was dedicated to increasing knowledge of bioethics – also called biomedical ethics or healthcare ethics – because so few people knew what my chosen field was all about. Several years later, with more widespread adoption of tools like electronic health records, large databanks and biobanks for research, and genetic testing, patient privacy suddenly became more important within bioethics. So I added a section of the blog on privacy, mostly in terms of healthcare and protecting patients’ records.
My generation, and my elders, came of age in an era in which our identifiable patient information was stored in a locked filing cabinet, in a secured medical practice or hospital. Part of our doctors’ duty of care to us was to ensure that no one had unauthorized access to these records. Patient confidentiality was a matter of trust, between physician and patient – perhaps along with a few members of each doctor’s team; this might include a nurse, a secretary or administrative assistant, and (rarely) clinic or hospital inspectors during random visits.
When our data began moving to electronic formats, suddenly that trust was no longer between each patient and their doctor and medical care team; it now included entire Information Technology or IT departments, and potentially even researchers (if we gave our consent for our records to be accessed for this purpose).
Today we’re all aware of genetic testing, and of the risks of discrimination that this can bring – for example if a person is identified as carrying a particular disease-related gene, like Huntington’s or Parkinson’s Diseases. We’ve heard of hackers holing patient records hostage within hospitals, of medical devices being hacked, even of people’s health identities being stolen in the United States. But these are all stories for another day!
Given that I’ve been blogging for healthcare awareness-raising purposes for almost 20 years now, from the days of “What’s a blob?”, it seemed only natural to continue in that vein when I was diagnosed with a rare disease in 2016. Although I didn’t know at that point that my disease would end up causing chronic pain in my case, I was immediately struck by how little attention was being paid – within healthcare and even within bioethics – to the plight of patients living with life-changing pain conditions.
So I began using my art, and the experience gained through my career in bioethics, to help raise awareness of chronic pain – and to advocate for pain patients who were unable to do so for themselves. Not only did I continue using my own nature photos here on the blog, I began to enter them in contests and exhibitions. For each event I’d use whatever text I was permitted, to accompany my photo, to talk about chronic pain.
When I started learning to paint last year, I began using my paintings in the same way; as awareness-raising tools. I actually started learning to paint because of my pain condition … As a form of movement-therapy for my own pain condition – a rare disease named CRPS – and in the hope of preventing any worsening of my CRPS-related ‘mild cognitive impairment’ over time.
It turns out that pictures aren’t only worth a thousand words, sometimes they can create a thousand words! I can’t count the number of times that someone has approached me to talk about pain – or about my own rare disease, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) – because of one of my paintings.
Having started painting because of my CRPS, my art practice is heavily intertwined with both my reality as a pain patient and my volunteer activities in the area of pain – as a Patient Partner in research and quality improvement projects, as a mentor to others living with persistent pain, as a speaker to medical students, residents, and healthcare professionals, and more.
The motto of my art practice is Art Despite Pain, and I even bring these little postcards to art exhibitions and shows to explain why!
So it was really nice to see my art-as-advocacy featured in this newsletter about pain research and treatment. Thank you, Canadian Pain Society! To read the original article mentioned, in The Suburban newspaper, click here.
As always, thanks for stopping by! I wish you a day filled with moments of beauty and joy… of noticing the colour of a flower or autumn leaf, the song of a bird, or whatever it is that you find beautiful in the world. As I’ve had to disable the Comments feature here on the blog, after it became too much for my cognitive impairment to deal with, please feel free to reach out over on Instagram or Twitter if you have any comments – I’d love to hear from you.
References:
(1) Canadian Pain Society; Mike Wong, Editor. CPS Art Award Recipient Featured in The Suburban Newspaper. eNews (newsletter). Fall Edition 2022. 26 Oct 2022. Email and online (“the CPS eNews is only available to members; member sign-in may be required to access the materials”)
https://www.canadianpainsociety.ca/CPS-eNews
(2) Anthony Bonaparte. What the Pop! free pop-up art exhibition comes to Hudson Sunday, Aug. 7. Feature. The Suburban. 02 Aug 2022 (updated 05 Aug 2022, after this post). Accessed 26 Oct 2022. Online:
https://www.thesuburban.com/arts_and_entertainment/arts/what-the-pop-free-pop-up-art-exhibition-comes-to-hudson-sunday-aug-7/article_15c7de44-1286-11ed-b6cc-f35327bfa297.html