Dear steemians.
Like I told you in my post “The art of living with MS and how to juggle with our lifes” my plans regarding my art carrier changed a lot by having this moody fellow traveller "MS or Multiple Slerosis". But still I have worked at my art carrier in between a bit periodically.
In 2013 my former Art history teacher from Art School at that time the manager of the National Gallery of Iceland came for a visit at my studio along with a curator and an artist from San Marino. They were searching for an artist in Iceland that beside being an artist also had MS. They asked me if I was willing to collaborate with an artist from San Marino whom also had MS. This was for an exhibition held in the National Gallery of Iceland 5 months later trough a project called “Little constallation” But that is a network of contemporary art that focus on geo-cultural micro-areas and small states of Europe. The subtitle of the exhibition at that time was " Disappearences". I agreed to participate in this uniqe collaboration.
Shortly after I got an email from the artist in San Marino Lorella Mussony aka (Lory Emme). Lory had a rather long history with MS like me and was bound by a wheelchair but we started to writhe each other letters and throw some ideas back and fourth. She has actually made MS a topic of all of her contemporary art the past years and few years back she made a beautifull performance where she flew in her wheelchair in a balloon.
After a period of writing and getting to know each other we decided to make a documentation of our research of two women, the oldest documented cases in history that the medical science can link with MS. Our investigation and sharing our history´s with MS parallel to those two women from the 12. century as well as our brainstorming where then made to be the material for our fanzine as this was a book art exhibition.
(I painted St. Margaret like this as we MS-ers often have problem with our eye sight. Seeing double or triple is often bugging my self).
I could dig out some info in old books in Iceland about these two women and I also read a lot about old medical instruments and methoods used at this periode in history that people thought could heal. Most of it were some kind of ceremonys regarding the Catholic church. The st. Margaret was very popular at this time regarding sicknesses but St. Margaret fought a dragon that is depicted with a knot on his tail. When someone was sick or giving birth to a child people checked all the surroundings to see if anything was tied up anywhere. Everything had to be loose and nothing should be tied. Otherwise the problem, the sickness or the birth wouldn´t go well. Then they called up on St. Margaret and asked for her help and healing.
The two women in Iceland in the 12. century were called Halla and Halldóra.
Halldóra was priests wife that lived in Vestmannaeyjar ( Westman-island a smal island south of Iceland). After being bed-bound because of loss of strength in her feet and fatigue for three years another women in town got a revelation in her sleep. The newly dead bishop of Skálholt St. Thorlákur came to her in her dream and told her that Halldóra should travel to Skálholt (the bishops mansion and church) and get a holy healing. He also told her that he would guide them on their way over there but they had to carry her to a boat and sail over to the big island and then from there ride on horses to Skálholt. The travel took some time. Halldóra got her strength little by little on her way over there and even more so when arriving in Skálholt. Later she stood before Alþingi the old parlament in Þingvellir and told them that St. Þorlákur had healed her. She was able to walk again. This can well happen with MS. Over long period of time the lesion in your spine and brain can heal bit by bit and after three years in bed Halldóra have not gotten much exercise. While traveling she must have used her muscles more and more and found that her neurological system was working better than she had thought, so little by little over these weeks she must have been able to get her mobility going again. This is not unknown in MS. I my self lost mobility in me feet for a few months some years back and I got my strength back. Lory is also stepping out of her wheelchair a bit last time I heard from her. But mostly her vertigo has stopped her from walking much.
In the case of Halla there is less known about who she was or where she came from but she suddenly got blind. Wich happens in MS cases. She lost her sight on both eyes and after going to Skálholt and praying upon the bishop St. Þorlákur while they bound a holy candle wick around her head she started to see a bit. At that time she had been blind for around 3 weeks and she started slowly to get her eye sight back. That is common for people with Relapsing-Remitting MS (RRMS) and the flair is usually going on over period of 2-4 weeks.
Beside doing the detective work me and Lory drew some pictures and made sketches for concept art regarding these stories. The pictures with all of our letters and info gathering were then printed in our fanzine with the title “Two warriors and their battle against the monster”. "The little constallation" team also made a catalogue where some of our pictures got it´s own chapter.
It´s possible for those interested to read our fanzine and look through our chapter in the catalogue from my web site with a link to issuu.
http://m50117.wixsite.com/mariapetursdottir/published-book--fanzine
Beside telling our MS stories in the fanzine there are historical information where I translate chapters from 14. century books for example "The Miraclebook of st. Thorlakur" and we also speculate about info we gathered regarding genes and heredity through Celts during the Viking period. In Iceland we have a database or genealogy web (Íslendingabók) with data over Icelanders through out history and I can track my heritage to the 8th or 10th century. All the way back to some Norwegian and Celtic kings and princesses. I could find Halldóra in this database as well but she was born in 1150.
Me and Lory than had a bit different take on the concept work but I painted with ink and drew a brain cell made out of candle wicks and my idea was to make a human size sculpture out of it and maybe a performance with ceremony like holy candle wicks. Lory on the other hand was looking at the new technology of seaboard and the seaboard can actually match with the idea of the dragon that makes a knot with his tail on the ocion compared to St. Cathrine. I´m only displaying my paintings and drawings here as that is my original content but you can also see Lory´s pictures she made in the computer in our fanzine trough the issuu link.
The exhibition opened in the National Gallery of Iceland the 17th of may 2013 and I managed to be there with my then cain as I just got out of the hospital after steroid injections because of my tremor attack/relapse. Lory on the other hand couldn´t be there and still I havn´t met her in person. But my plan is to visit her to San Marino one day.
Thanks for telling your story. Great illustrations too! Resteemed (-:
Thank you :)
O God, it is one of the most useful articles I have read
It's creativity continued
Thank you :)
You are really wonderful continued
Always in her creativity
I like how you deal with MS. Respect! This will help other people, not only with MS . And I like the illustration very much !
Thank you for this !
Thank you Achim I apreciate it! We always hve to remember when we have some sickness that we are not our sickness even thoug it can try to take over our lifes. And art is a grate way to channel our thoughts and feelings about it into :) Then we often have manedged to make something totally different out of it even beauty out of pain. I was in a multi media departnent in Art school and we were almost braiwashed with the motto of not letting our art be about our personal affears as that would not inspire others. Always focus on the collectively of human interest. But I have found out through the years that what we go throug is always connected to others experiences as well and its what is closest to the human heart. So I work with MS in my art today with out a doubt in my bones :)
I can only agree with you. As a "cluster head" (Clusterheadache) I have had similar experiences and just banned my little demon on canvas a couple of years ago . ;)
Good! He should definetly be banned :)