#MEAction’s Postcards to Doctors initiative has continued to be an incredible success! Thanks to the hard work of the #MEAction community we have sent postcards to nearly 6,000 clinicians across the United States. We could not have done this without the invaluable contributions from the artists who designed our postcards.
#MEAction would like to give thanks and recognition to these artists. Throughout the coming months, we will introduce the artists behind the Postcards to Doctors initiative! This month we would like to acknowledge Lia Pas, an artist with the unique ability to bring her ME symptoms to life through needle and thread.
Lia has always had an innate ability to create; before she contracted ME her artistic outlets were dancing, singing, and writing music. She went from dancing and composing music daily, to having a near-impossible time listening to music. Lia told us that “even reading was difficult.”
“When I first got sick I was […] borderline moderate to severe. I would have what I called, ‘my episodes’ for about 6-8 hours every day. I was so tingly and so sensitive to everything– I just had to lay completely still for hours.” Lia knew that if she was unable to find an alternative creative outlet she would risk becoming “horribly depressed.”
She says “I was watching a lot of TV, as you do when you’re sick, and I was watching some drama and I can’t even remember which drama it was and this woman collapsed and the doctor said she needed to take to her bed and take to her embroidery.” This scene on TV in combination with Lia’s Eastern European family background and sewing experience prompted her to try embroidery as an art form.
“[I] had done a little bit of cross stitch in high school and my family is all Eastern European background from Germany, Polish, Ukrainian, and Russian. And my sisters were in Ukranian dancing and you have to make the costumes and there’s a bunch of intricate cross stitch patterns that are involved and I loved doing it!” It was clear to Lia that she had sewing skills but also did not consider herself to be a “flowery person”, as typical embroidery can be. This is where her creative nature was able to flourish. “I had done a lot of science-based sort of text and image-based collaging using old anatomical drawings and engravings so I was like why not do that? […] and I was hooked.”
Lia finds stitchwork to be a relaxing and fulfilling way to spend her time while creating meaningful pieces of art. Her embroidery displays unique perspectives of body parts that convey her personal experiences with ME symptoms. Lia has shared images from her “symptomatology series” which she says allows her to explore her ME/CFS symptoms. Lia’s inspirational work has proven that art can inform an audience beyond words.
In addition to the inspirational artists such as Lia who have made this initiative possible, we would like to give one more thank you to all those who have made the Postcards to Doctors initiative a thriving success. We are aiming to send out 6,000 postcards by the new year and are well on our way!
If you wish to learn more about Lia Pas and her creations, please visit her webpage http://liapas.com/bio/or check out her Instagram/Twitter by searching @lia_pas. You can support her artwork by visiting Lia’s Ko-Fi page, a site dedicated to helping artists thrive. Click on the button below to support Lia Pas on her KoFi page!
[maxbutton id=”20″ url=”https://ko-fi.com/lia_pas” text=”Buy Lia Pas a Kofi” ]
If you would like to contribute to the postcards to doctors initiative, please visit the postcards landing page https://www.meaction.net/postcards-to-doctors/ and submit a request to receive postcards.
