Some of you may have checked out my video talking about what inspires me already. For those of you that haven't this will be a brief introduction to what has come from more than 5 years of creating, hurting and healing.
The Sketch and The Idea
This entire body of work all hinges on two things, the idea and the sketch. Those two primary forces pushed me into creating artwork about my health years ago and writing this blog today.
In 2014 I was in a continuous cycle of feeling bad for myself, pushing away loved ones and constantly being anxious about my health. It was sketching about these feelings and life experiences that helped me turn my life around.
Earlier Works
Once I started turning my sketches into larger paintings it was only a matter of time before I had a body of work that started to emerge. To no surprise they were all self portraits and still are today. Anatomical and symbolic images of me stripped down to my most bare and vulnerable.
Figures consumed by opium poppies, swimming in a sea of tears, reverberating with pain, being split in half and torn open. They represent the most raw, dark and prevalent emotions that come with living with chronic pain. It was my goal in these earlier works to let others living with chronic pain know that they are not alone and to allow those that aren't a chance understand.
Recent Works
It is still a long and winding journey to good health for me and you can see this when you look at my work. A few paintings start to highlight feeling better while the next may represent pain.
I continue to sketch to keep my mind off of pain and to help ease my anxious mind. Of course it isn't the only thing I do to take care of myself but it is the one thing I do that I truly enjoy. It reminds me that I was given an amazing gift and talent. A tool that can't cure me but can certainly help. When I'm feeling up to it I work on these larger statement pieces in my home studio.
What's Next
In the upcoming months I will be spending time writing about specific paintings, the story that is told with each one and the symbolic meanings in them.
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