(Click on Photos to Enlarge)
Well as most of you know my treatment has not
been going so great and I have not been able to work in a long time. My sister told me the other day that if I am waiting to be cured to live my life that may never happen. She has a friend that has been on IV abx treatment for 10 or 15 years and said there is no real cure for advanced Lyme only periods of remission. She said “Linda, what are you hoping for, a cure, or to feel better? Because there is no cure.”
I was really pissed off when she said that but after spending the night thinking about it I realized that I have been waiting to be cured, I am pissed off and I feel like shit, I don’t even recognize my life anymore BUT, that doesn’t mean I have to stop living. The next day Don and I went for a hike on a favorite trail in the woods. It was exhausting, painful, and at times anxiety provoking, but it was also wonderful. The next day I was very fatigued, had joint pain flair up and paid the price for my day out but it was still worth it.
I have been wanting for a long time to do a series of Lyme paintings in oil, but every time I thought about going into my studio the fatigue was so overwhelming that I couldn’t even imaging getting out my supplies. I was also terrified to put this Lyme thing into a painted image, the thought of bringing up what I was feeling and putting it on canvas was really frightening to me. So after this difficult awakening brought about by my sister and her Lyme infected friend, I decided to do my first painting. I have no clue how to paint with oils so this whole experiment was really pushing me out of my comfort zone. Anyway, I got out a canvas and the first day I did a charcoal sketch on it. As with the hike it was very fatiguing and flared up the pain a lot! But it felt great to bring up the first image and see it on canvas. The next day I got out the water soluble oils and felt very frustrated at my lack of knowledge in painting with this medium, but as soon as her face started to reveal itself I was in bliss. I painted until the pain was so bad that I could no longer stand and had to lie down. I fell asleep for a couple of hours from exhaustion.
The next day (today) I still had a lot of pain but I got up and started in again, I stopped only when the pain and fatigue got so bad that I had to and then as soon as I could I got up and went back to it. The painting is far from done most of it is just blocked in and still needs lots of work but I was so excited about it I decided to post it to my blog. I show it in three stages, as a charcoal drawing, then after painting her face and the current unfinished state that it is in.
Anyway I was dying to share it with all of you so here it is, “Transfusing Lyme” The raven (my totem animal) is squeezing the life-juice out of the Lyme, which in turn is being drained from my body at the neck and I am being infused with healing blood from the sacred heart. I also seem to have dropped about 100 pounds and gotten a really cute face in this “self portrait” but hey that’s an artist’s license isn’t it! The camera flash messed up the colors a bit and I liked the face I had before I over painted it better but it gives you an idea of where the painting is headed.
(Click on Photos to Enlarge)
Well as most of you know my treatment has not
I was really pissed off when she said that but after spending the night thinking about it I realized that I have been waiting to be cured, I am pissed off and I feel like shit, I don’t even recognize my life anymore BUT, that doesn’t mean I have to stop living. The next day Don and I went for a hike on a favorite trail in the woods. It was exhausting, painful, and at times anxiety provoking, but it was also wonderful. The next day I was very fatigued, had joint pain flair up and paid the price for my day out but it was still worth it.
I have been wanting for a long time to do a series of Lyme paintings in oil, but every time I thought about going into my studio the fatigue was so overwhelming that I couldn’t even imaging getting out my supplies. I was also terrified to put this Lyme thing into a painted image, the thought of bringing up what I was feeling and putting it on canvas was really frightening to me. So after this difficult awakening brought about by my sister and her Lyme infected friend, I decided to do my first painting. I have no clue how to paint with oils so this whole experiment was really pushing me out of my comfort zone. Anyway, I got out a canvas and the first day I did a charcoal sketch on it. As with the hike it was very fatiguing and flared up the pain a lot! But it felt great to bring up the first image and see it on canvas. The next day I got out the water soluble oils and felt very frustrated at my lack of knowledge in painting with this medium, but as soon as her face started to reveal itself I was in bliss. I painted until the pain was so bad that I could no longer stand and had to lie down. I fell asleep for a couple of hours from exhaustion.
The next day (today) I still had a lot of pain but I got up and started in again, I stopped only when the pain and fatigue got so bad that I had to and then as soon as I could I got up and went back to it. The painting is far from done most of it is just blocked in and still needs lots of work but I was so excited about it I decided to post it to my blog. I show it in three stages, as a charcoal drawing, then after painting her face and the current unfinished state that it is in.
Anyway I was dying to share it with all of you so here it is, “Transfusing Lyme” The raven (my totem animal) is squeezing the life-juice out of the Lyme, which in turn is being drained from my body at the neck and I am being infused with healing blood from the sacred heart. I also seem to have dropped about 100 pounds and gotten a really cute face in this “self portrait” but hey that’s an artist’s license isn’t it! The camera flash messed up the colors a bit and I liked the face I had before I over painted it better but it gives you an idea of where the painting is headed.