project description:
In my drawing, I depicted my sense of place surrounding my two-week hospital stay earlier this summer. At the time, I was still in school and was very weak from a post-infectious disease called gastroparesis, temporary stomach paralyzation, that left me unable to eat for months. Despite my visit being recent, MCV had a huge impact on me and how I would go about in the months to come. It was a true wake up call that this condition had gotten out of hand and that I couldn’t continue to hide this with “I’m fine” anymore. I almost took pride in remaining “bubbly” or “positive all the time”, so when I look at my stay I see freedom. I see the burden of pretending to be okay get released and I see the first time in months my body was finally receiving the nutrients it kept fighting off to take in.
The objects listed below were all integral to my recovery- whether it was something I began to use daily (my feeding bag) or something that distracted me (cue the fabulous sunglasses). The knitting needles are a physical reminder of the pastime I took up while in the hospital and the sweet blanket my friends made to spice up my traditional, white hospital bed. The pink sock monkey was a toy from my mom, given to my oldest (and closest) sister when she was battling cancer. She’s won the fight,
for now, so they thought I could use the luck too. The bold sunglasses are and represent one of the many props found in my bag that kept my visitors and I free from boredom. Whether we dressed up or were trying to look stylish to go to the clinic’s gardens, the sunnies always kept the shade out. Lastly, the denim bag, decked in pins and patches, became my new lifeline as the hospital stay entailed myself getting a feeding tube. To assist in some much-needed confidence, we decked out my bag with pins and patches to disguise its nutritional purpose.
sketchbook spreads:
2 preparatory hw assignments:
final work:
