Illustrate Our Pain

I think that everyone- whether they are healthy, ill or somewhere in the middle- needs ways of expressing their pain. It's not that they need to express their illness if they have one or something like a break up, but just that they need to express the way they feel.

I really want to talk about the use of art to convey a message. I think everyone should try 'showing' people how they feel, literally. Make art when your in pain. Rip paper to show how torn you feel. Make bold marks because you are so mad. Use your foot because your hand hurts. Draw in blue because the pain brings you down. Trace your hand on it's side. And don't just limit this to paper: Use clay, writing, music, photographs, ANYTHING. Do it to make yourself feel better: The quality doesn't matter, what matters is if you feel better.

I would like to propose that chronic pain sufferers, whether we are young or old, take five minutes to illustrate their pain. Just five minutes: Details don't matter. This is an example of what I did today when I felt like I couldn't take the pain anymore.

Pretty, isn't?
Nope.
But even though it didn't take away the pain, it did make me feel a little better.
Please, give it a try if you can (Don't push yourself if you really just can't).

I'd really like to see what some of you might have created, so if you did do some sort of art to express pain (it doesn't have to be this exactly), please send me a link so I can see and maybe we can feature it on a future post (only if you want).