Birdsfoot Studio

Harvest 2024 ✦ Harvest 2016

Added 2024-10-01 21:11:53 +0000 UTC

This was going to be a post about how I’ve been recording my harvest through art over the years. I found what I think is my oldest squash drawing, and at that time I had a combined journal and sketchbook.

What a strange coincidence, I haven’t read my old journals in years. And this page contains the day that stays in my memory because of how traumatizing it was, and that I’ve been thinking about even more recently.

I was living with what I now know is endometriosis, but I thought the pain was normal because period pain is so normalized. It was the first day that my pain was so severe that Tylenol and Advil did nothing against it, and I was vomiting from the pain.

This drawing is from September 24, 2016.

I did not plan to share about my medical problems here, but things have come full circle.

So to contrast these squash drawings and what that time in my life was like, we have the first squash painting of 2024. And I’m not in pain! I realized when people say period pain is normal, they don’t mean the pain of childbirth that I was experiencing. I did lots of research, went to the doctor, and was prescribed a medication that is working wonders! This will never be over because there is no cure, but I found a treatment.

This was going to be a post about how much my art has improved, but it’s also about how I finally improved my quality of life. (: