CHRONIC: An Artist's Story Breakthrough

The first painting I created with this theme, was last summer, in 2025, and I just got through a horrific 2 week migraine episode, that I hadn't dealt with in a long time, that kind of flare up. So I got it all out on canvas, or channeled the frustration I was feeling. Something in me clicked, and I realized I loved the feeling of these types of artworks. What they made the viewer feel, whether uncomfortable or not, being surrounded with this type of visual environment, pulls a person into a different world. It also felt amazing expressing myself, in this way. ¶ So on I went after a few fall hiking vacations, into my tiny studio at home to express my chronic migraine pain all I could, that have been a part of my life since I was 5 years old. All of winter into early spring, I have been seeing where this journey would take my paintbrush, trying to plan nothing along the way. I realized my migraines were really broken down into phases of pain and and the visual pain they evoked from my imagination, so they visually are very different. ¶ *Follow this series along with my show in Arts League of Lowell, MA.* ¶ When the migraine strikes, the eye series is what came to mind, or my minds eye. Lightning pulses start behind the eyes, throbbing, you know there is no way out of it. My brain starts to feel like it's exploding from the inside, in a very unpleasant way. ¶ The tornado series shows what it's like in the thick of it, like a real storm, it's hard to feel like it will ever be over, the extreme environment is so intense. It very much feels like being swept up in a twister, nothing really makes sense, everything feels like a challenge, you just want to drop everything and hang on. ¶ The next stage I call "the migraine hangover," with full blown fog effect. The haze over every decision, every move your body makes still feels hard, like you are moving through quicksand. ¶ Finally, the moment the fog lifts, and everything feels amazing. Where joy becomes so much easier to find, after going through that pain. This painting I made a few years back, but I also wanted a cleansing piece in this show, to bookend the fact that the sun WILL come out and blast away the pain. Every day is different, and tomorrow is another day.

ART SHOWSABSTRACT