If you prefer non-representative art, I have an array of abstract pieces. There is no “right” interpretation of my abstracts, but the inspiration for several works has been illness and chronic pain.

My chronic pain began in 5th grade, and wouldn’t be diagnosed as endometriosis until I was 25. I developed migraine attacks from one of the drugs I took in the course of my treatment for it.

I created “Adhesions 1” and “Adhesions 2” with scar tissue in mind. Endometriosis lesions and surgeries can create scar tissue with the power to stitch organs together.

This image is my abstract expression of the illnesses I’ve experienced. The radiating auras suggest the location of my pain: head and abdomen. It’s a vaguely human figure evocative of a meditative pose, to signify a certain mental space one sometimes has to access in order to survive extreme amounts pain. A spiky static feeling circles an empty space–the things that illness takes away.

Yet one viewer sticks in my mind, who said they saw that hole as a portal to something new. They saw aligned chakras and peace where I once saw void. Something to meditate on, indeed.