Christopher "Beautiful" Carlson

Migraine and art

By Christopher "Beautiful" Carlson

"I don't paint, but I do write (various genres and forms), and am currently in university as a history major. Since returning to school after the Christmas holidays, my headaches have been more frequent that normal. Because of this, I'm not as up to speed with my school-work as I'd like to be. In fact, just today I e- mailed by English prof about a small assignment that I have yet to pass in that was handed out almost a month ago.

Anyhow, my headaches do indeed affect my ability to create. And the fogginess, or 'hangover' (as I like to call it), that follows a headache is even more stifling since it can last much longer than the headache (depending on the severity of the headache and the weather).

It's very hard to concentrate, think clearly and, subsequently, create well-written and intelligent pieces. On many occasions I find simple e-mails written to friends while 'hungover' riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, which I find quite embarrassing (I hope my message to my English prof turned out all right ;-)

On the flip side, however, is the fact that my headaches have themselves inspired more than a few works. Just the other day I composed my first piece of poetry in quite a while. Titled 'I am the Dead', the one line that repeats itself throughout the piece is 'There are devils in my head'.

I'm certain that many other artists, in various fields, have also experienced this 'blessed curse'. I wonder how many artists out there have used their experiences with headaches/migraines as the major muse in their work?"

(Christopher "Beautiful" Carlson, Canada's #1 Nashville Predators Fan, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: Migraine and Art, February 3, 2001)

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