Working Through a Disability

If you have been following my blog, you will know that I am currently fighting my second go-around with Stage IV cancer...and since I've been on chemo since November 2010, I have experienced a lot of disabilities.  Some are only temporary, some are permanent.  Working with the disabilities sometimes makes me try to find out different ways of doing things so I can continue, and sometimes it means that I have to take a little break from blogging.

I'm also interested how others deal with debilitating health issues, particularly ones which affects their artwork.  In this case, Tom Watson III has an interesting story.  This triptych is made salvaged cardboard.  Tom is showing us his recovery from a stroke in this piece he calls "Stem:  Reassemblage, Series II."  The first piece you see his brain stem, the second it is shattered and spread apart, showing the impact of the stroke.  The third piece it is reassembled onto a watercolor painted background which has been mounted once again on the cardboard.  His artwork is there...but you see that missing lower left corner...things are together, but not exactly completely whole.

I thought this was a pretty interesting piece and I love it when people use art to express what has happened to them.


Of course, very little art has been being done around here....last night we were without power for 4 hours....which I am grateful for as our neighbors on the other side of the street were out of power from the first windstorm on Friday night until this afternoon.  An amusing thing was that I had made dinner for them on Sunday...only to have to wait until the storm passed and that brought our own power outage!  Food was all made and was yummy and the company was good.  With temperatures well over 90 and high humidity....being without power is not something you look forward to.