Lupus Awareness

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Lupus Awareness

I was diagnosed with SLE Lupus in June 2018. Even today it is such a huge impact and a change within the daily lifestyle that I used to have. So much of your identity changes, but one thing I won't let it take away is my passion for illustration.

Since my diagnosis, Lupus becomes your life. Like a horrible twin sister that is a part of the family. My psychologist told me the best way to recognise and motivate myself was to draw again, and to incorporate Lupus into my artworks. Because I work within realism and portraiture as a passion, I found it hard to come up with ideas in which I could move forward with this. As an artist I feel it so important to incorporate who you are into your artworks. Colour for me was key when thinking this through, as well as inspiration from things such as books and movies that are now a huge part of my day to day activities.

Symptoms such as fatigue, poor concentration, migraines/headaches, joint pain, are just few of my daily struggles. Some days I may just get in a half hour walk between naps and watching the odd film and a bit of reading. Illustration has been at the back of my mind, but I know its important that when I have the odd good day when it comes along that I should sketch/ create what I can.

Lupus awareness has been very important to me at this stage since my diagnosis, and I felt these artworks may help other people that are diagnosed, to people that may need to do some research into what lupus is and how it effects people. I have a few other ideas coming together for future projects that are slowly coming along, that I am looking forward to sharing with you in the future.

Over the passed few months I have been working on a few more pieces that have touched on the therapeutic ways in which I can explore Lupus Awareness across my practice. I started with Lady Gaga who has been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia which is another autoimmune condition.

I thought doing portraits of people that are actually living with chronic illnesses, would be more effective as a way to raise awareness. I thought about contacting some other friends of mine who are diagnosed with autoimmune conditions that help me through online support groups. We all suffer with these chronic conditions everyday, and have different ways of handling it and living our lives the best we can.

I thought before contacting people that may be interested in being part of the project, I would start with my own portrait. After finishing the portrait using purple as my main focus for the ideal concept, I started thinking about the handwriting series I worked on before and thought I could use this process as a way of expressing what it is like to have Lupus.

I used handwriting as a way to express the issues that I face with this disease everyday. Not just the side effects from the medications I will have to take long term, but the struggles that I will face from one day to the next. Not only did this piece help me mentally but I was able to tell my story that not many people like to hear. I keep a lot of my issues to myself, for it is a tough thing to share to everyday people that do not understand. Using handwriting as a way to build up the textures of the face with words of the truth was quite a powerful piece for me.