Artist Statement

Bone pain may sound simple, but to one with such skeletal complications it means the cancer has metastasized.  It is elusive, difficult to describe because it involves several distinct types of pain intermittently, or at once, and can be difficult to believe and beyond imagination for the fortunate.  Beginning as a dull constant ache it only continues to grow worse, becoming a constant reminder about death even during the best, most optimistic and productive moments.  The pain can feel deep, stabbing, throbbing, burning, cramping and gnawing.  Then once it begins settling in the base of the skull and spinal vertebrae the pressure on nerve roots brings sensations of numbness, tingling and an overwhelming feeling of weakness.  Again, it becomes a truly remarkable thing when making art helps free my mind from clinging to all this personal melodrama for even a moment of healing and feeling fully alive.