Printed in the Journal of Pain and Palliative Care Pharmacotherapy in the September 2005 issue (Volume 19 Number 3)
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Cover Art
Cover Essay
CP III: Trapped in Hell
Mark R. Collen
Media: plaster, pigment, rebar
Origin: Sacramento, CA
Year: 2001
The image captures a moment of desperation – attempting to escape the cage of wrenching nerve pain by pushing my face through the bars.
DESCRIPTION OF THE ART
There are times when Dilaudid stops working and the horrible nerve pain takes over, ripping through my innocent leg. I lay on my bed trapped, trapped by pain. I feel fear, afraid the pain will never cease, afraid I’ll go insane from it. I cry out to God begging for mercy. What have I done to deserve this fate? I feel like an innocent man condemned. I am trapped in a cage of pain, a cage made of rebar. I cannot tolerate it another second. I try a desperate escape by pushing my face through the bars, but I can go no further. I’m trapped in hell.
ARTISTIC PROCESS
CP III is the third piece in my Chronic Pain series. I had the idea for it a year before I actually attempted to make it. With my pain art, I always
get a vision of what the finished piece will look like and that is where I start. Manifesting the vision into reality requires me to master a new technique and overcome technical challenges. When I make art I work alone. Since I served as the model and artist for CP III, the creation of it was far more difficult. Finally, after three attempts I was able to complete the art as I had envisioned.
________________________________________________________________________________ Mark R. Collen is a self-taught artist and the creator of PAIN Exhibit and the on-line pain art exhibit PainExhibit.com. As a result of an injury and failed back surgery in 1995, Mr. Collen was left with neuropathic pain. He started the PAIN Exhibit in 2001 as a response to years of undertreatment that he endured. Mr. Collen has created art pieces about his pain and concluded that art is far more effective at communicating the
pain experience than are words. His desire to help end undertreatment of pain, coupled with his understanding of the power of art to educate were the seminal factors in the birth of the PAIN Exhibit and PainExhibit.com. For more information or to provide support for this on-line exhibit, please visit http://www.PainExhibit.com. This cover art is provided courtesy of PAIN Exhibit and PainExhibit.com.
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Article courtesy of The Haworth Press, Inc.
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