JJ Ignatius Brennan

Robert Buelteman

Joey Brooks

Artist's Website

Joey Brooks, Migraine, 2002. © 2005 Joey Brooks (http://www.joeybrooks.com/migraine.htm, June 8, 2004)

"Migraine - I stand and stagger as the world rushes by shaking pom poms of light and fire in my eyes."

(From the artist's website, June 8, 2004)

"I had severe migraines when I was in advertising school (1976-1977). It was the creative process, not art-making in particular, that brought on the migraines. I had so many ideas in response to an assignment that my brain would overload and I would get a migraine. Migraines dictated the direction of my creativity. They so hindered my ability to function as a copywriter, that I quit. Still needing to create, I gravitated to a less stressful form of art: painting. The ideas for the art I now produce come to me gently and naturally in dreams or spontaneously during the waking hours.

Though I have only had a few full-blown migraines and they were almost thirty years ago, I was able to recall the experience instantly when called upon to enter a contest for artists where the subject matter was migraines. I created a painting that captured the feeling of a solid earth that dissolves into a long blur in the center range of vision with white bursts of light exploding at the top and center. The bottom third of the painting represents the Earth. Non-threatening spring colors dot the lower section and ground the painting. The middle section is jarring in violent red and sends your eye right off the edge of the canvas. I juxtaposed the red over the pretty purple to show pain and surprise. One never expects a migraine just as one wouldn't expect to see blood on top of violets. The rush of color off the canvas represents the way a migraine transforms your vision into a merry-go-round blur with a comet's tail each time you turn your head. And finally, the knifefuls of white paint at the top third of the canvas illustrate the blinding light flashes that cut you down right before the real pain begins."

(Email to Klaus Podoll, June 10, 2004)

Author: Klaus Podoll
Last modification of this page: Sunday March 13. 2005

JJ Ignatius Brennan

Robert Buelteman

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