How Art Helps Me Heal
I have always found, that art is my way of communicating my big feelings. I can scratch color into paper, rip/shred/ and glue it back together, suffocate the work with emotion, I can give it all I got, then when I've finished a piece, I breathe out and feel better again. Now I create pieces of all type (drawing, graphic design, sculpture, etc).
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Since the accident, I've been crocheting as a way to feel better about having to use a walker and wheelchair. I'm self conscious mainly about the walker because In my eyes, they are for older people and I have convinced myself, I am still too young for them. So I've made pockets for my walker, Wheel covers for my wheelchair, and a cane holder I can use to hold my cane when I do have to use my wheelchair but want to bring my cane. I've made my walking tools appealing to me so I feel less embarrassed about having them.
Crochet Works
I first began learning to crochet when I started learning to ride a motorcycle. I wanted to have something to do in the wintertime to distract me from not being able to ride. After the accident, while I was in the hospital, I asked for yarn and was given bags full of it. I began trying to crochet, the yarn getting tangled up in my wires and tubes attached to me. When the nurses would come in, they would have to remove all the yarn off me to be able to do what they needed to. Now I crochet to keep my hands and my mind busy from all the PTSD thoughts and backflashes.
Multi-Media Works
Before the accident, I was using art to focus my determination to ride. Being told that I shouldn't ride because of people thinking I'm weak made me angry. I used art to blow off steam and express my feelings.​
Now I am using art to help focus my feelings of PTSD and Survivor's Guilt to make the ugly feelings more beautiful. The art I have produced has helped me clear my mind of negative thoughts as they arise. It is like breathing in the blue skies and expelling the negative.