Celebrating A Messy Art Room

Hello friends – My messy art room was the best feeling this morning as it reminded me that I have been creating a storm. I went through eighteen years, during which my creativity was channeled into my children’s activities, cooking, journaling, teaching fitness classes, and holiday decorating.

Shortly before “lock down”, I went in for a tendon repair on my ankle from overuse and ended up with 40 % of my ankle tendon being removed. I was down, which meant I could not teach fitness classes for at least a year. So in that time, I decided to use my art degree and become a print-on-demand artist with Redbubble.

After a year had passed, I felt good enough to teach fitness again. On March 26th of, 2021, I got the 💉and within 3 minutes, I had an anaphylactic reaction. That evening my feet began to ache like a pot of hot water was being poured on them. I would later be diagnosed with erythromelalgia as a reaction to the as well as small fiber neuropathy.

It became evident that I had incurred a serious injury that left me with chronic pain and unable to walk longer than 10 min. My loving & supportive husband Casey brought me flowers on the day we bought the portable wheelchair and said, “We will do everything that we have all ways loved to do, but we will just do less of it”.

Two long years intertwined with the grief and mourning over the sudden loss of my 18-year-old son, Grant in 2017 created much sorrow.

I heard a lady being interviewed on the radio, and she talked about how she was as passionate about pursuing ways to brighten one’s day.

At that moment, I became on a mission to create joyful and uplifting art to brighten another’s day and help myself heal.

I was hurting and painting in the early morning hours when I could not sleep due to excruciating pain, I would listen to gospel music and create with The Creator. This early morning ritual healed my hurting heart.

I hope this share has blessed you today and inspired you to keep on pursuing ways to create and heal, as I believe that in doing so, we can find joy again. Hugs to you! Deana (Dee-na)