Anesthesia (2023) is a group of mixed media works interwoven with allusions to loss, chronic pain, disability and medical trauma. Approximately one in four Americans identify as a person with a disability and 20% of Americans experience pain on a daily or near daily basis.  To abled or pre-disabled persons, such an experience may be hard to picture, but we are more alike than we may think. No matter how healthy one may be, we all experience loss. At one time or another, we all experience the grief of limitation.  

            As chronic pain has suffocated my early twenties, I have become increasingly preoccupied by the relationship we have with our bodies and with pain. This series of work seeks to find the poetic under painful circumstances. Chronic pain infects every aspect of life and fosters hopelessness; people with chronic pain are at least twice as likely to report suicidal behaviors or complete suicide. But no one needs to bear this burden alone. Whether abled, disabled, or anything in between, vulnerability and transparency will build our understanding of one another. Anesthesia affirms that seeking wellness is a human right.