Printed in the Journal of Pain and Palliative Care Pharmacotherapy in the September 2005 issue (Volume 19 Number 3)
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Website Review

http://www.painexhibit.com
THE ONLINE EXHIBIT OF THE Pain Exhibit, developed by Mark Collen.

Accessible on line at no charge.

A donation form is available at the exhibit site. Tax deductible donations are used to help keep the exhibit alive.

Chronic pain is difficult to define, describe, measure and treat. It varies in location, distribution, intensity, timing, and chronicity. It conveys messages across a spectrum from meaningful signals to a meaningless, grim foreboding. Untreated, chronic pain tends to increase in severity and enlists affective components from anxiety and depression to insomnia, frustration, withdrawal, anger, and even thoughts of suicide. Chronic, under-treated pain afflicts millions of persons and exacts a huge toll in lost wages, health care costs and human misery. The gap between our scientific understanding of how to treat pain and the clinical application of that knowledge remains one of the frustrations of modern health care. The complexity of pain contributes to mistaken assumptions and inappropriate generalizations about its causation and its impact on the individual. For example, I once saw a chart notation, "The pain is not as bad as the patient says it is." The Pain Exhibit is a plea for understanding and better care for those who suffer.

I have seen individual paintings that tried to convey what pain does to people. A single painting, good as it may be, does not usually convey a lasting impression. But put sixty-nine works by artists with chronic pain together with their comments and suddenly the impact is undeniable. The artistic renderings offered in the Pain Exhibit range from direct attempts to depict the pain to symbolic representations of what under-treated pain does to the individual. Despair is there, but transcendence and hope can also be found. Humor, anger, yearning and genius are also present in these works. The human spirit shines through them.

Mark Collen, a young businessman who has experienced chronic pain for ten years following failed back surgery, found some relief through expressing in art what his chronic pain meant to him. Eventually, he asked other similarly disabled persons to share artistic impressions of their pain. After receiving more than 500 submissions, he selected sixty-nine to represent various aspects of chronic pain. Some of the pieces are starkly realistic; others are symbolic representations of pain and its impact.

The graphic representation of a nerve in the grip of two large, black pincers needs no description, nor do the prison-like bars across a scene of a pleasant yard. The text accompanying a distorted self-portrait, however, informs us of the importance of artistic expression:

Pain is the beginning and end of every day to me. I have suffered from chronic pain for so long that I can't imagine life without it anymore. As my back pain increased and the brace came into my life, I found myself painting an increasing number of self-portraits. I try to express a feeling I cannot put into words. They are an attempt to explain the torment I am going through. Through them I try to express a feeling I cannot put into words. For me, creating art is just something I do to survive a life of constant pain. It's as if the paintings have become a record of my pain, giving a face to an otherwise faceless enemy.

A close-up painting of the face of a cat offers an unexpected comment detailing the value of what might be called 'distraction,' 'focused attention' or 'pet therapy.'

In my deepest hours of pain, we acquired a nut-case (sic) cat, who is able to keep me entertained. When the heaviest prescription opiates would not cut the pain, she would make up some new game that could get me laughing. This cut a spiral of pain and has allowed me to draw off all pain killers.

The fusion of a torso into a stylized cross provides a basis for the artist to challenge commonly held religious assumptions about the heuristic value of suffering. The succinct text accompanying this painting, entitled, "Amateur," offers an undeniable, message, a calculus of suffering beyond mere words or numbers:

Amateur is about questioning religion in the depths of despair and making a statement about Jesus' suffering which was short and humane compared to RSD1 victims.

Words of sufferers describing their art surpasses the impact of either words or art alone. It is hard to imagine a more convincing argument for the value of art therapy than the works and words presented here.

Out of the misery of his failed surgery and resultant chronic pain Mark Collen persevered to provide a forum for persons with chronic pain. Its obvious value in health care education is reflected in the prestigious institutions that already employ it in their programs. The Pain Exhibit can be viewed at <painexhibit.com>. One of the works from the exhibit can be viewed on the cover of this journal.

A user-friendly CD containing the sixty-nine works of art and accompanying description is available by arrangement from Mark Collen who can be reached through the website or at 916-362-0363. Donations to the Pain Exhibit are tax deductible.

William M. Lamers, Jr.
Medical Consultant, Hospice Foundation of America
Malibu , CA 90265-2233

NOTE

1. RSD: reflex sympathetic dystrophy, now also known as 'complex regional pain syndrome'

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Article courtesy of The Haworth Press, Inc.

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ART GALLERIES
Portraits of Pain - Suffering - Pain Visualized - But You Look So Normal
God and Religion - Isolation and Imprisonment - Miscellaneous - Unconditional Love - Hope and Transformation