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Printed in the Buenos Aires Herald on Thursday, May 20, 2004
"Whenever I have a bad pain day I use the parking spot for disabled people. You can't imagine the looks I get from people when I get out of my car." Mark Collen is the creator of the Pain Exhibit ( www.PainExhibit.com ), an online exhibition of art works from people all over the world who suffer chronic pain. The aim is to educate healthcare providers and the public about chronic pain, to get better treatment and understanding. Collen lives in Sacramento , California . He had a wife and was the top sales person in the nation for the insurance company he was working for. He was putting a box in his car when he ruptured a disc, which stuck into the nerve that ran down his leg, causing severe nerve pain. He was immediately operated on and the pain went away for three months. Desperation overtook Collen when the pain resurged unexpectedly. There was nothing he could do. Pain became part of his life. One day, as he was feeling especially bad, he made an artistic piece of work and discovered that it not only helped him cope much better with the pain, but that it was an excellent way of transmitting to others what he felt. That's where he drew inspiration from to create the PAIN Exhibit. Collen then contacted a great number of patients with chronic pain all over the world and found himself with an enormous amount of art works inspired by pain, which he divided according to themes. As he was unable to become a non-profit organization, he began to work under the California Assembly of Local Art Agencies (CALAA), in order to gather donations for his project. "Because pain cannot be seen," said Collen, "many people fail to understand that a person might look normal, but might be suffering from chronic pain." There is a section on the website that illustrates this point very well: But you look so normal . One of the artists, Judy Kay Merryman Cowan, made a collage showing herself in pieces surrounded by phrases that show people's total lack of comprehension as to her condition. "Art is very powerful," said Collen. In art he found a unique way of expressing what he felt, and people saw that. Collen's sculpture of a foot with steel blades stuck in it expresses what chronic pain feels for him. Many doctors placed the art works in the medical history of their patients. Doctors from Stanford and the University of California at San Francisco are using the art from the site to educate doctors, nurses, and others about chronic pain. "I went through a great deal of pain, unnecessarily," said Collen, "Because of ignorance most physicians are either afraid to prescribe narcotic analgesics or won't prescribe an adequate dose. They are afraid of two main things: being prosecuted by law enforcement and losing their license to practice medicine, or they fear the patients becoming addicted to the drugs. Public policy desperately needs to change its attitude about the ethical use of narcotic analgesics. Most people don't understand the difference between psychological addiction and physical dependence. Study after study show that people with chronic pain rarely if ever become psychologically addicted to narcotics." "This project has been the most difficult endeavor of my life," said Collen, "I have had a very difficult time getting help from anyone. It's been very frustrating." He used his own savings to keep the exhibit afloat six months ago, when he ran out of donations, and is currently looking for a sponsor. His idea is to tour the world with the exhibition. ------------------------------------------ |
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