#5 Dislike

It was my turn to choose our most recent prompt for the Monthly Painters' Challenge, and after a lot of consideration throughout the previous month I chose 'dislike'. I know it proved to be quite challenging to other members of the group, and it did for me at first too. I don't think you can help but start to think about your own work before announcing the topic, but my initial thoughts were of portraying a celebrity or politician I don't like, and I ended up going in an entirely different direction from that as the month progressed.

I've wanted to do some work relating to my ankylosing spondylitis (a form of arthritis) for some time, and realised this was a good opportunity to begin. You can read a post about my disease here. The spine was an obvious image to include, as it's the joints between each bone which are affected by my condition, and I added two female figures stretching their arms above their heads.

I've called my painting 'Cinders' due to both the ashy grey pencil and white acrylic I used, and also as a play on the word 'inflammation'. From Google, 'Cinders' is defined as A small piece of partly burned coal or wood that has stopped giving off flames but still has combustible matter in it. Most of my pain  and inflammation from the disease has stopped now thanks to the injections I now take, but the damage is still there and is something I'll have to deal with for the rest of my life regardless of whether or not the medication continues to work.

ALICE JONES
"Cinders"
Acrylic and Pencil on Watercolour Paper
30 x 42cm
POA