Conquering Migraines

This piece was created for submission in an exhibition about artists' experiences with life changing illnesses. Here is my artist statement for the exhibition:

This piece is an illustration of the impact of chronic migraines on my life. I have suffered from chronic migraines for six years. In that time they have cut me off from many parts of my life, and have lead me to cut myself off from almost all of the rest of it. In this piece, I am the doll in the center. The needle-felted spikes around the doll are the pain and other symptoms of the migraines, as well as the fear of getting a migraine, that have all cut me off from my life. The spikes are different from one another, because migraines come in different forms and different strengths; no two are the same. The pictures around the perimeter are all pictures from my life or pictures representing parts of my life. From little things like yard work, to big things like birthday parties, migraines have cut me off from all of them to some extent. But the doll is knitting, as I have been knitting. The knitting is a bridge over and around the cage of the migraines, connecting the doll to her life. Knitting has allowed me to reconnect with life by connecting me to people and by giving me something that I can do even when I have a migraine. It cannot do everything or fix everything, and therefore the knitted piece is airy and fragile. But it has helped me to begin the return to my life and gives me a connection, however small, to that life. The doll’s knitting does not reach all of the life around her, but it continues to grow; she has not cast it off, and there is still yarn left.