In 2021, my first work related injury happened. I was drawing about 6 hours a day on top of my day job, and finally the continuous strain (and poor posture) caught up to me. It happened fast and sudden. Almost like electricity across a metal cable, what started as a mild pain in my wrist spread across my forearms, shoulders and neck.
I couldn’t even hold my phone up in my hand without pain, let alone draw after about 1 week. I even tried using my left hand and arm, but the same thing happened as if my body was protesting the whole thing.
That started a one year period where I didn’t make art. For the past year I was heads down drawing and creating but it was clear I had to take a pause, and I took the time to rest, and re-evaluate what I wanted to do with my creativity. I knew that I still wanted to pursue art in some way, shape or form but felt very lost since I couldn’t draw as consistently with my injury. I also felt really disconnected from the internet culture and social-media obsessiveness that I was part of as a digital illustrator.
I started again in 2022 with a very different medium. This is when I started my grad program studying interactive media art, and it was very technical. I spent my days and nights learning code, programming games, and using 3D software to create the worlds I wanted to build, and enable players to have the interactions and experiences I wanted them to. I was heads in and feeling ALIVE again about creating art, and this time was able to with more focus, time and guidance.
Until recently.
I had experienced the same thing again. After working very hard on a freelance project in the last month, I felt burned out and apparently my body did too. It’s now been a few weeks and my body still hasn’t recovered. The sensations felt really similar to when I first injured my arms.
Tightness. Strain. Pain. A sense of the need to do to prove my worth and earn my keep.
I already knew I had to work differently the first time, but I forgot that lesson as I recovered. I pushed it off and got wrapped up again with the crazy work culture that our society is obsessed with. I now know that it’s not simply because of some ergonomic switches or changing medium. It’s an internal mindset and lifestyle shift that I must enact in order to keep bringing my works to the world. And it’s also a shift I need to show others that they are allowed to do the same.
And hence I am starting this series: An Artist’s Thoughts On Rest, and During Rest. Because I realize that it’s a problem many people are struggling through, and I know, undoubtedly, that there is nothing wrong with us. That we don’t have to work ourselves to illness and pain to have everything that we want. Everything that we deserve, regardless of what some parts of society or our upbringing has told us.
I have a desire to express myself, to share my message, regardless of how technical or aesthetically pleasing it might be. And this is how I felt called to channel that. Here will be my reflections and thoughts on rest, and during rest, as an artist.