BEING CREATIVE TO COPE WITH CHRONIC PAIN- THE CHRONIC ELEPHANT

[hellytheelephant]

In this the second and final part of Lee's Guest Blogs at The Chronic Elephant, the focus is on how working with your hands and your imagination can help you live better with chronic pain.
There are some really inspiring words in this Blog, along with some wood carving, painting etc. Like many of us Lee was discouraged from doing Art at school by his Art teacher(!) so, I hope this Blog tempts some of you to pick up a pencil and become creative again.

https://thechronicelephant.blogspot.com/2019/05/lee-art.html

 

[Moof]

I too enjoy all kinds of crafts, from pottery to mosaics to knitting. My philosophy has always been that if a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing badly! Doing things we're not naturally good at is immensely liberating, as it works against everything we're taught from an early age.

I'm actually quite competent with mosaics...but wheel-thrown pottery is almost always a disaster due to my severe hand arthritis. Bloody hilarious, though, so I still do it sometimes with a similarly incompetent friend!

 

[Rufous McKinney]

I too enjoy all kinds of crafts, from pottery to mosaics to knitting. My philosophy has always been that if a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing badly!

Proudly achieved: I will do this creative thing and not GIVE A DARN: if it turns out well. Perfection: whatever.

One can in fact enjoy, in this bizarre way, random foibles, mental misconceptions of recall of competenance.

And its fine if I am not very good at it. Thats all fine, too.

Just be five. Its ok to be Five, again.

 

[hellytheelephant]

I've tried quite a few artforms, and thrown a couple of pots( badly natch!), but never done mosaics..sounds interesting @Moof as I am mainly in bed, I need to keep things simple re clearing up....although my sense of play is pushing me out of my comfort zone and I am doing a big collage, when I usually work small and use crayons.
@Rufous McKinney -Perfection: whatever- I couldn't agree more!

 

[Blue Jay]

What a brilliant attitude. I'm finding it difficult to find time to paint at the moment as I'm caring (and being cared for in roughly equal measures) but as soon as I can squeeze in a little time, it's back to the easel having being inspired by this thread.

 

[Wolfcub]

I had forgotten to paint.
I can't recall the last painting I did. Maybe 2013? My problem has been that long standing time necessary to do a larger painting, because it hurts my back terribly, and bending over the painting (on a table) is just as bad if not worse.

My 2013 work... that was just a creation on an old nylon chopping-board that was going to be thrown out. But I saw it had a hole on top -perfect for hanging....and there was a white empty space on my bathroom wall.
So I made a round picture that sort of "spins" round...twilight sky above, with gold-green/pink of the setting sun, some early stars and a crescent moon, and beneath -symbols of earth, dark greens, some growing wheat, many shadows like the woods.
That painting took 30 minutes to do. It wasn't a case of getting it "perfect", it was just a case of getting the magic feelings out.
Then I painted it over with clear matt craft varnish, three times, and it cheers up my bathroom wall.

Gosh, that was six years ago. I can't somehow find the motivation or right body position to paint now.

 

[hellytheelephant]

What a cool thread this is.
One thing I have found that helps when everything feels impossible is to scale down to what is manageable, (maybe use one colour rather than all the colours for example) then try to do a little most days. At the moment I am doing a scribble on a postcard size when I can. Do it then not worry about it (don't give the inner critic a chance to get going!)
I did a mini painting with different nail colours the other day- it was fun but looked crap!
Another option is to take a photo everyday.

 

[Wolfcub]

Doodling can be fun too. One shape leads into another, things grow off it, etc etc....just a line drawing which can be coloured in perhaps later.
They are fun to do, to just let the pen take you where it wants to go, and not even think much about what you are creating.

 

[Wolfcub]

Your blog is really great @hellytheelephant Your work is so good

 

[hellytheelephant]

I'm glad you enjoy the Blog @Wolfcub!