Fibromyalgia and Arthritis, Nez Sleaman

She turned the canvas around and used the back of the canvas rather than the front. "This was symbolic of that cover up, that non-visible disability. The paint on the frame is white and splotchy and doesn’t go completely around, showing how the cracks start appearing and what is below the surface starts to show." I used gesso, which builds up in chunks, because I wanted to sort of make it a rough, rough exterior. I glued crinkled up plastic crinkled onto the paper and on the frame to represent explosions of agony in my joints, and then used different shades of red to show the intensity of what that pain can feel like. And lastly, I used red thread coming out of the plastic to represent the pain spreading throughout my body."

 I just sort of lost, lost my way for a minute there. And I found by doing this that and getting out some of the pain in a visual way, it actually gave me a different avenue or a different voice. So it was incredibly powerful.