Yes, I’ve found another medium to express my pain and you can own your own copy of it!

I didn’t like the idea of creating a long description of my living with pain or turning journal entries into a pain story – I’ve got this website for that!

And besides, first and foremost, before the person in pain, I am an artist… so my book had to be creative with few words.

At just 32 pages I believe it’s a complete story. It doesn’t hold the solution to chronic pain but the book is aimed at helping you to explain it to someone else.

Art & Chronic Pain – A Self Portrait was created as an expression of my experience up until the time of my diagnosis – roughly 4.5 years. It was also made for the purpose of being a companion to other people living with chronic pain. I want the reader to feel empathy in a world where no one seems to understand, and I wanted to ease pain for the reader as they looked through it.

My marionette, Ms Soula, has been a great aid in helping me communicate my frustration with this invisible pain. I’m thrilled that the portrait I painted of her was selected as a semi finalist for the National Doug Moran Portrait Painting prize. It made me happy that Ms Soula, was beginning to communicate my message of invisible illness.

In the midst of being creative with the marionette (refer to full post) I have found more ways to express my pain some of which form this book.

Art & Chronic Pain – A Self Portrait by Soula Mantalvanos
Art & Chronic Pain – A Self Portrait by Soula Mantalvanos
Art & Chronic Pain – A Self Portrait by Soula Mantalvanos

I use drawings, sentences and phrases from my website, guided by your comments and emails to me, and used Ms Soula’s strings to document my pain journey’s ups, downs… and knots. I wanted this to be a special publication and with Theo’s help, we made it exactly that. There is a dust jacket with real strings attached, which Theo attaches one by one (thanks Theo).

There are only 500 copies produced and I’m happy to report that the book is almost sold out. With this exciting achievement, I have now decided to offer a downloadable version.

Purchase Art & Chronic Pain – A Self Portrait via PayPal below.

Thank you!

The price of my book is $29 (plus postage*) and it’s also available at Queenscliff Gallery. Order online by selecting an option below and hitting the ‘buy now’ button (credit card orders can be processed through PayPal even for those who don’t have an account).

Cost: $29 (view postage costs in the dropdown)

Outside dust jacket.
Pictured below: two double-page spread examples.
Size closed: 195mm (W) x 255mm (H)
Pages: 32 plus dust jacket with attached strings
*Postage costs pay for waterproof and protective package.
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100% of donations go to myhealthstory.com.au development.

Art & Chronic Pain – A Self Portrait download