CREATING THROUGH CHRONIC PAIN

Dear followers:  

This quarter, I'd like to share a young women's story about resilience.  Whether you are a writer or an artist, we are all creators.  May her journey inspire you.   

Hello art-loving friends! 

I’m Jess and I’ve been playing with art since I was maybe five or six years old. I graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts from Concordia in Montreal. Unfortunately only a couple years after graduation in 2016, I developed a rare migraine condition—a headache/migraine hit me out of the blue one day and never went away. It's there I wake up, when I am asleep…always.  

It’s safe to say I lived many years in a cave of darkness with audiobooks as my best friends, especially since the diagnoses took so long. Finally in year four I was diagnosed as NDPH called New Daily Persistent Headaches. And while there’s no known cure, one medication brought the pain levels to an actual functioning degree, most days that is, and usually only for a few hours. 

 

I slowly started creating little crafts to pass the time as well as to distract myself. I often would make greeting cards for friends and family and started scanning them early on as a way to preserve them. Soon I had enough designs to risk getting them printed locally and Chronically Clever began!   

I find when I get inspired by a new creation, I can set aside my pain for a little while and just get lost. Though the migraine may come back with a vengeance, it’s always worth the reprieve. I love working with watercolours, pencil crayons and ink mostly, as it gives me the most control and I love how the colours pop and blend perfectly.

While I may have started this journey with greeting cards, I’ve gone on to create stickers, magnets, bookmarks, and more. 

Since my diagnosis, I have been passed to three other neurologists and tried 19 different common migraine medications with no positive results, but through my art as therapy I stay positive and keep trying new treatments!

My love of art is endless, but unfortunately due to my unpredictable pain levels it has taken me many years to find a way to be here creating again and it is therefore a very slow labor of love. 

I hope you find your own art therapy whether through music, the written word, physical expression or the art of creation like myself. It is such a rewarding way to heal yourself. 

Thank you for visiting.

https://chronicallyclever.ca/

@chronicallyclever

✌ and ♥