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.
hi erica, i'm really sorry for your suffering, 11 yrs. is a heeluvva long tiime, i myself have been in chronic back pain for 3 years and it is SO hard, where is your pain, in your art (which i found veery compelling) it seems maybe in your neck, what happened to you? are you going to any drs.? pain clinics (hard to find a commpassionate one with drss. and nurses who think you are drug seeking, don't get me wrong if you find one that works, STICK WITH IT!!! can you tell me a little bit more about yoursself? i have a BIG shoulder and am in the same situation, even if i can't help you, i CAN listen! easier said than done, but try and hang in there, hoping to hear from you and to see some more of your art, cindi