The Invisible Me

My Name is Erica Collins. I have had chronic pain for 11 years. This has been the hardest journey of my life. The drawing I have submitted shows the deepest expression of my pain. These are moments where all words fail. Even when I exert my best to describe this experience to loved ones,Doctors and friends the words seem to dissolve and lose their intensity. It's hard to reconcile this invisible handicap with the outside world. I know my images are sometimes hard to digest and even scary for others to see, but for me, giving my pain a voice some how frees it from my life and connects me with others who know what living with pain really means.

Through the last 11 years,expressing my interior landscape through art has helped me accept my condition, ask for help and reach out to help others. I had a brittle strength before my injury, now it is a compassionate and more flexible strength. Like a tree in a storm I bend with the wind.