Art Gallery

Test Strips

Test Strips

Over the summer I decided that I wanted to take on a big project because to me, a big project meant a big impact. Once again had a lot of my own used supplies but this time I also got supplies from others to show a full spectrum of supplies. I wanted this piece to stand out but also be personalized so naturally I thought the best way to do that was to make a life-sized cast of my body. I covered it to show how diabetes surrounds you 24/7 whether you want it to or not. You may think it’s random or overwhelming but sometimes I feel that way about diabetes.

Covered

One day when I was feeling frustrated for having to live with this annoying disease I thought “what can I do with all this trash?” I thought that it was unfair that I was the only one getting shots, so I got myself a foam ball and started stabbing it with my used needles. Finally, I had a way to take out my aggression and use my Diabetes trash for a good purpose. When the whole ball was covered I realized that this wasn’t only an outlet for my emotions, it was art.

Diabetic Sun

This painting shows a seemingly normal girl that nobody would suspect has T1D. To me, this shows that Diabetes is a relatively unseen disease to outsiders even though it has a huge impact on those who have it.

Normal Girl

After I was diagnosed, I was in my honeymoon for a relatively long time which I was pretty happy about and I didn’t really see what all the fuss was about. When my numbers became more sporadic I was in shock. I was used to being a diabetes superstar that had “perfect” numbers which made it easy to blame myself for my readings and other problems that arose with diabetes. My doctor kept telling me that it was just a number and at first it was very hard for me to internalize what she said. I was constantly thinking: “This is my fault,” and “What am I doing wrong?” I know that being 600 for a week is definitely not good, but creating stress where it wasn’t really needed was not good either. So I made this painting to serve as a reminder that at the end of the day it really is just a number.

It’s just a number