A fun art-related “on this date” memory from last year: I was quoted in an international art magazine, the very aptly named Artists Magazine, from The Artists’ Network! – pretty cool for an emerging (new) artist. And fantastic timing for today, the start of International Pain Awareness Month. Great timing because my art practice began in 2021 specifically because of my chronic pain. I was struck with CRPS rare disease “out of the blue” in 2016 (to use an artistic or colour expression)…
CRPS causes severe pain in the bones, joints, nerves, and skin of my right hand & arm, as well as full-body symptoms including fatigue and the ‘mild cognitive impairment’ that stole my bioethics career at the end of 2018. How can one rare illness do all that? CRPS has both autoimmune & neuroinflammatory impacts, like a truly horrid two-for-one discount!
On the positive side, I decided in 2021 to try something that I’d dreamt of doing since childhood. To learn to paint, with watercolours – the most difficult medium! – and to use the results for chronic pain awareness. That was the start of my Art Despite Pain (#ArtDespitePain) initiative. I couldn’t even draw a stick figure a few years ago, so it’s incredible to me that I’ve already won awards for my paintings… And it was absolutely perfect that my 1st award for a painting was from the inaugural Art Awards of the Canadian Pain Society (CPS).
So today, to mark the start of Pain Awareness Month, I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who has encouraged me on this wild ride of Art Despite Pain.
