Cleveland Heights, Ohio

water color, color pencil, pen and ink

11 inches long x 8 inches wide

This piece was created after my right side paralysis that came on the tail end of 5 months of untreated pain throughout my legs and left arm. I watched everything I love fall away from me, and as an artist, I could no longer create. It was especially difficult since my drawing hand couldn't even wrap around a pencil. My husband encouraged me to try out my left hand. After a while of hesitation, I began sketching and doodling with my left and this picture emerged in my sketchpad. This has everything to do with the abuse I endured while laboring with and delivering my son into the world while living in Israel. A self portrait: a woman who became a bleeding festering wound with no peace in her life. When I painted this I was living in the house of the circle of abusers and saw no way of ever getting out, even though I dreamed of great things and escape. Pain as a garden, where seeds grow and fruit ripens. Pain as opportunity and irony, and within it, glows the tiny ember of hope and redemption. This is the single piece of art that began my return to the arts since that initial trauma in Israel. I am thankful to report that now in 2015, seven years later, I am beginning to reclaim my life.