Artwork by Kate Amedeo

Painting away the pain

Since I was a little girl I used to draw a lot. I actually attended the local art school and hated it so very bad! I think the worst thing about it was that we were told how to make art and were forbidden to express our own creative ideas. And I have to say that I hated painting most of all. If drawing was something I was good at, painting was something I really loathed.

Well, guess what, now I paint for living! Who could have thought that, right?

I gave up the art school for a dance school, falling 5 months short of the graduation. But, as my wise grandfather says, it’s not what is on the paper that counts, it’s what is in your head. So I had everything I had learned in the art school neatly stored away for the future which would come one day. And it came right after my wonderful little girl was born. But it wasn’t all sunshine and buttercups, far from it.

Right after Ellie was born in 2016 I felt wrong health-wise. I was in pain all the time and at first, I thought that maybe it was the pregnancy still taking its toll on me. Well, for the next one year and a half I was in agony and went through real hell. I was in pain non-stop and the worst part of it was the smirks I got from the doctors, both from GPs and from A&E personnel who told me that I am imagining things (trust me, I wasn’t, especially when I was passing out from how much pain I was in).

To make this dreadful story short, it turned out I have a condition called Fibromyalgia. I will not go into detail about it as you can google it but I will say one thing, I do not wish this on anyone else. Ever.

But what does it have to do with art, you will ask. Well, this horrible affliction has brought me back to drawing and then, subsequently, to painting. I was in pain and unable to sleep (I would eventually pass out for a couple of hours every now and then from exhaustion) and when Ellie was asleep I had to keep my mind occupied (yes, I had some very nasty thought going through my head; if you are someone living the same nightmare do contact me and I will gladly give you my support as I know how trying life with a disease that does not relent at anything can be, most importantly, do not give up!)

So I started drawing. My first drawings were, ghm, how to put it, B-A-D. Yup, I’d forgotten a lot of it and slowly it started to come back to me. It’s like riding a bike but this time I had no one to tell me I was doing it ‘wrong’.

Soon, I started to paint. It was something I was scared of but at the same time I was charmed by all the colours and tried watercolours. I started out with painting my friend’s dogs and from there it snowballed to where I am now.

Well, I feel like I have to add a closing thought to this description about me. Art means so much to me now, it has dragged me out of the emotional ditch and helped me overcome some nasty times and now is a huge source of inspiration and pleasant pastime it has become the main source of my income.

Now a bit about the Drawing Academy. I am at a point where I understand that even though I have some knowledge when it comes to drawing I really need to learn more. And Drawing Academy is exactly what I was looking for. I wanted to apply to the Fine Arts at the local Uni here in Plymouth, but unfortunately, our financial situation has gone very much downhill and I had to stop the application process (I had already had the portfolio interview and was accepted but, as the saying goes, life happens…).

So Drawing Academy is something I would love to experience as it will bring me into the fine art world first hand but, unfortunately, I cannot allow myself this wonderful learning experience financially.

Thank you so much for reading! :)