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Migraine Art Migraine and Painting Louise Woodard
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Louise Woodard
Louise Woodard, Violent Passages, 1989. © 2005 National Headache Foundation
"'Violent Passages' is a time-lapse painting of the artist's migraine sequence as she sees it. Her work focuses on the pain surrounding her eye and the confusion she feels, especially with numbers, as a result of the migraine."
(Cited from "Migraine Masterpiece" exhibit, List of works, National Headache Foundation 1989)
"For migraine sufferers, the artworks [of the first Migraine Masterpieces art contest in 1989] are rich in symbols that have painful associations. 'After seeing all of them and being with them all day, I felt very depressed,' says Louise Woodard, whose 'Violent Passages' won the $ 4,000 first prize. ....
Woodard, a former art teacher in Mattydale, N.Y., who was forced by her migraines to retire ('When you start vomiting in front of a classroom, there is no way you can teach'), had headaches every other day during the course of painting 'Violent Passages' and used them to deliberately inventory her symptoms and her perception of pain.
Ironically, the method proved almost too successful: She is repulsed by her representation; yet when she looks at it, she sees herself. 'Usually, I critique my work for a week or so,' Woodard says. 'This one, I couldn't wait to get rid of. The picture is horrifying to me. I had a photo taken of it because I knew I would have to give up the picture. But I've never been able to frame the photo and hang it because I just look at it, and that's all I want to see of it. I put it back in the file."
(Cited from Webb, 1989, p. 9)
The Rainbow Coalition - WCNY art auction features Louise Woodard's vibrant watercolorsBy Beverly LeesmanSome 13 years ago [1984], Woodard decided to quit her dead-end job and take the plunge, learn watercolor and make a living as an artist. In the beginning she struggled--and to make things worse, her husband kept telling her he didn't like her work at all. "Why, Mike?" she finally asked, and he said simply, "Louise, I don't like flowers." With that information, she expanded her subject matter and got the approval she wanted. Few people took her seriously until she won a $4,000 prize for a highly personal artistic exploration of her migraine headaches. With that money, she converted an extra bedroom into a real studio with a huge window that casts natural light on her drafting table. The National Headache Foundation and a pharmaceutical company sponsored the national contest, flying her to New York City for a weekend when she won. The New York Daily News, numerous medical journals, newspapers in Atlanta, Florida, Alabama and around the world printed articles on Woodard, the contest and her watercolor. Some people actually feel the headache the picture portrays in shades of reds, pinks and deep brown shadows. In it, an isolated figure fiercely clutches its head in agony. Elongated, wavy fingers mimic the spiraling pain, creating chaos and confusion. It's a clever portrait of every individual who ever suffered a migraine, but mostly it's a revealing self-portrait of the artist herself in the midst of a mind-bending struggle with a headache. For those who suffer migraines, it's a disturbingly accurate image. The sponsoring company kept the original, much to Woodard's relief; she still feels uncomfortable around the painting. "It took me two weeks because I kept getting headaches," Woodard explains. "I would close my eyes and say, 'What do you see now?'" Beverly Leesman, The Rainbow Coalition - WCNY art auction features Louise Woodard's vibrant watercolors, Syracuse New Times, 1997 (http://newtimes.rway.com/1997/011597/art.htm, October 4, 2004) |
References
Webb A. Pain as art. Exhibit depicts the violence of migraine headaches. American Medical News November 24, 1989; 32 (no. 44): 9.
Author: Klaus Podoll
Last modification of this page: Saturday March 12. 2005
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Copyright © 2005 Migraine Aura Foundation, All rights reserved. Last modification of this site: August 25, 2006
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