Post Surgical Sketches — Let the Dance Begin

Self Por­trait, Jan 21, 2013

I am pretty sure that it was the mor­phine and anaes­thetic that kept me up all night after my surgery, but as I was lying in my hos­pi­tal cubi­cle 6 hours after com­ing out of surgery, I real­ized that there were images danc­ing in my head. Ones that I should not keep to myself. Hav­ing been sur­gi­cally altered for­ever, my “out­side” was never going to be the same, but my inside was still danc­ing, singing and yearn­ing to be free.

Being the opti­mist that I am, I had a sketch­pad and pen­cil on the table next to me, even though I’d been told I may not be able to move my hand or arm for days after­wards. Lean­ing against the rails that kept me from falling out of the bed, I sketched away, and was able to sleep, and sketch five times dur­ing that long night.

Fam­ily

I real­ize a week later as I drag my painful self around the stu­dio, that the pain med­ica­tion made this totally pos­si­ble, but I’m encour­aged to think of some new pos­si­bil­i­ties for paint­ings in the upcom­ing months. The lovely night nurse that kept check­ing on me told me the story of her son and his fiancé, a sim­i­lar love story to that of Kevin and I.…so I cre­ated one for her too…but it’s with her now. I found these sim­ple pieces to be the most per­sonal pieces I’ve done to date.

Self Por­trait, Jan 21, 2013

Self Por­trait, Jan 21, 2013

Cre­ativ­ity gives us hope, a vision and ulti­mately — a goal. We should never be afraid to express our­selves, no mat­ter the sit­u­a­tion we find our­selves in.