I was suffering from a migraine headache all last week. I have suffered from chronic migraines for years. I am lucky that they are not quite as severe as when I was younger. They still produce a horrible nagging pain that makes it difficult, sometimes close to impossible, to function.
During this time, I decided to try painting to see if losing myself in art would get rid of the headache. To my dismay, it did not, but I painted through to see what sort of manifestations I would get on paper. I didn’t want to necessarily paint “headache” paintings as such. I was intrigued with the directions that my paintings took. I painted in layers of frenetic linear markings that captured my agitation and my impatience to be rid of the pain. An example is “Trouble on the High Seas” on the left. The “trouble” within the painting isn’t resolved, it is left suspended. My trouble was resolved – I got better. The viewer must bring their own “trouble” to the narrative from within themselves. It is open to interpretation as is the resolution.