Wednesday 15 October 2014

Make do and mend


The thing I love the most about drawing or creating of any kind is the feeling I get from taking a blank piece of paper and creating this


An artist's tools, begging to tell a tale.
This fluffy little chic leaps out of the nest for their first flight through the Whimsical Woodland. 

As a writer a blank page is a terrifying menace but as an artist it is like being handed a key to somewhere fantastical, a place I never get tired of visiting. Creating has an effect on the mind that is immeasurable, both in it's healing power and it's entertainment value but being chronically ill has an effect that can be more destructive than constructive. 

One of the most difficult parts of living with a chronic illness is the sense of loss. Mobility, brain function, sleep and independence are just some of the things that are negatively effected when you have a chronic illness. Add to this the extreme pain and isolation and the 
task of living day to day begins to feel insurmountable. The degree of loss varies for each person, starting with where they were in their life when the illness began and fluctuating as the illness either improves or progresses. Your identity is forcibly rewired when you find yourself constantly recovering instead of working or studying towards your goals. It is enough to break a person. 

So I draw and crochet and sew and cross stitch and bake and write, what I can when I can because it has a positive and healing effect on my life. 

This is how I use art and creativity as medicine. I literally fill the negative with positive. A blank page becomes a vibrant drawing that I turn into a birthday card. My time spent resting after physiotherapy etcetera is filled by the creation of a physical object that is passed on to someone special, transforming my otherwise unproductive recovery time into something that  also makes someone else happy. Suddenly there are a lot of constructive things happenings everyday, little things, but little things are big too in their own way. 

So go on make something and start mending. 


No comments:

Post a Comment