Migraine and Visual Arts
| Author: Klaus Podoll | 15. June 2010 |
| Edited by: Klaus Podoll |
Ann McGriffin
Ann McGriffin, Visual Disturbance, acrylic on board (13" x 18"), 2002. © 2002 Ann McGriffin
"I have been a migraine with aura person for 35 years, and am also an artist. I have a painting of my migraine interpretation and would like to submit it for your [website]."
"I am attaching my Visual Disturbance painting done several years ago. This was a result of re-reading Alice in Wonderland and the line 'I have seen a cat without a smile, but never a smile without a cat.' I was like a light bulb went off in my head. I immediately related it to having a migraine. At that time, I had never read much about migraines, or Lewis Carroll's illness before this, so the connection I made was totally independent of others' comments.
I have had severe migraine with aura for over 34 years. For almost 25 years there was no medication that would relieve the pain. Thank God for Imitrex & Ambien. Before these two meds, I would have to live with the pain for up to 7 days. When I tried to explain it to people the only thing I could think of was having a brain freeze for 7 days without relief. I also experience disassociation, floating, feeling unreal, feeling physically invisible, the related numbness on one side of my body, and speech difficulties."
(Ann McGriffin, E-Mail to Klaus Podoll, June 4, 2010)
"Do you feel that your migraine (aura) experiences had any impact on your art-making beyond this single particular picture? Do you have other examples of migraine-related art?"
(Klaus Podoll, E-Mail to Ann McGriffin, June 4, 2010)
"The 'feeling invisible' that I mentioned in my previous email may be difficult to explain. I can be in a conversation with someone and my brain/mind seems to implode. My perception distorts and I seem to be listening from another dimension. I see them talking, and I interact, but I feel like I'm not really there. I know others are aware of my presence, but I feel disoriented and sometimes awkward in getting into my body to communicate. It's always been a purely physical feeling, not a mental escape method. I can remember specifically beginning at age 5-6 saying to my best friend 'I don't feel real.' I've always kind of felt like 2 eyeballs floating around observing. This must have been a precursor to having migraines???
As for my art, the painting that I sent to you is the only attempt to actually portray what I see & don't see during a migraine with aura attack. I will say, however, that after your question, and much thought, I do think that being a migraneur has definitely affected my art. A recurring theme in my work has been different forms of floating, e.g., floating heads & floating in space. So in an indirect way having migraines has played a role in who I am as an artist."
(Ann McGriffin, E-Mail to Klaus Podoll, June 4, 2010)
"After a week of rumination on your insights into my migraine with aura condition, as it pertains to my art, I am most excited to see a connection between my migraneous state and the art I produce. You have shed so much light onto me me and my art.
As I said before, the 'I don't feel real' comments to my best friend began at age 5-6, but I did not know how to explain that. Around age 11, we moved to my mother's family farm in rural southern Indiana. I am an only child, so I spent lots of time alone in the woods. I would sit on the ground and lean against trees positioning myself so I could not see my body and would become a pair of floating eyes. I also began having terrible headaches, but not the classic migraine type. I did not have the auras until around age 22. For 20-25 years, there was no medication to relieve the pain, so the onset of a migraine was terrifying and meant I would have 5-7 days of unbearable pain."
(Ann McGriffin, E-Mail to Klaus Podoll, June 15, 2010)
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