The Absence Of Pain

This artwork comes at the end of a journey of acceptance. It comes from something that started when I was 15 years old: a chronic pain in my lower back that developed over 7 years into an autoimmune disease that causes unbelievable pain daily. And I am still in pain. Yet, for the first time since I became ill, I am happy. This handmade artwork signifies the end of the first stage of my illness, the road to accepting "it is what it is". When I made this piece, I had just finished a year of physical therapy, physiotherapy, chiropractic and hyperbaric oxygen therapy to function. Whatever you can think of, I did it. At the end of a year-long mission to get to the point where I could live again. I was actually living. I had accomplished the unachievable. I had reached the point where, instead of mere existance. I could feel the joy of life's possibilities. To signify that I can achieve anything. I just have to try. Handmade with Sharpie on cold-pressed watercolour paper 210 x 297 mm.