The Struggle
Emily Ashworth
The patient suffers from severe chronic asthma which developed during her early teens. Since then her lungs have deteriorated and she has been plagued with multiple other chronic health problems.
Despite a life afflicted with illness I was inspired by how much she has achieved. She had both children and a successful career which has taken her to Europe. She currently works as an accountant however she is once again being defeated by her illness and struggling to keep working.
Her life has been an on-going battle between the physical illness so unfairly inflicted on her and her ambitions and goals. She summarised this dichotomy beautifully for me when I asked her if she was afraid of anything. She described the moments, which are becoming more and more frequent, when she struggles to breathe and thinks she might die. Her “fight”, as she called it, is between her physical body, overridden by disease and wanting to give up and die, and her mind which strives to live.
In my painting I wanted to capture this moment of struggle, as well as an overall struggle in life, by personifying the contradicting aspects in two dancers. I wanted to convey a tension between the two and felt that the depiction of dancers, with taut limbs and bodies pushed to their limits, was appropriate. The male on the left, with his taut physique and broad shoulders, represents physical, destructive disease. The delicate, fragile female embodies life, hopes and dreams.
I tried to use my palette to enhance the two aspects of the painting. For the male form I chose colder, icier colours as these have connotations of ill-health and death. In contrast, I selected warmer and softer colours for the female body. I felt that these reflected the humble ambitions of the patient, which have battled hard to admirably achieve so much.
*details changed to maintain patient-confidentiality
This piece is extremely powerful; it perfectly represents the struggle between disease and person. It is easy to forget, as a medical professional, that each patient has their own ambitions, desires and a life beyond their illness. Too often we put treating the disease before the person, when it is often possible for people to persevere and continue to thrive despite it.
The bold use of colour in this painting is contrasted by the soft brush strokes, and together they capture the beauty of the dancers as they challenge each other. The male figure, representing disease seems to be casting a shadow on the female who represents the dreams of the patient, and I think this is a very emotive way of showing the impact ill-health can have on a person’s life. The piece illustrates the mental, physical and emotional burden of disease on a patient, and how their narrative goes far beyond what a doctor might hear about in a consulting room.
I love this painting, I think it cleverly shows how strong minded patients can be in the face of ill-health but also the strain physical illness has on the body and mind of patients. This artwork made me reflect on how doctors treat patients: a narrative focused approach is key, highlighted by this patients story and artwork. Although the patient suffered from a physical illness, which has greatly affected her life (seen by the powerful, strong male figure manipulating the body of the smaller female figure) she still has a strong mindset and the energy and desire to still do what she loves. Using a narrative focused treatment style allows doctors to ensure they are providing the best care for that individual patient, rather than for the condition. In addition, this piece highlights different responses by patients to illness: in this case the patients response is a dance; a flowing battle between mind and health. I can almost see the movement of the dancers, bending, stretching and testing the limits of comfort and pain. This is what I believe the illness is doing to the patient. The interconnectedness of the dancers also shows the never ending battle between good health and ill-health. A beautiful piece of artwork
The sharp and exaggerated shapes created demonstrate the remaining beauty in the body when its pushed to the extremes . the cool tones used especially for the man evoke feelings of isolation, hopelessness and exhaustion yet the strong form counteracts this and suggests an internal ‘fight’ and resilience present in the woman. The painting beautifully illustrates perfect balance between the pair of dancers only by them both pushing against each other , the women fighting against the physical disease and pushing against problems like adapting her lifestyle and the men pushing against all the hope and strength left in the women to keep trying both mentally but also physically . By including two dancers the artist suggests that sometimes we work against ourselves , in this case body against mind but sometimes this might be in self-destructive mechanism such as alcoholism or injury due to over-exercise . I really enjoy this piece of work and how the artist was able to translate a patients experience into a beautiful and well thought out art piece