Creativity has always offered me a way to process my health in a way that empowers me to live in an authentic way, enabling me to ride the highs and the lows with grace.

“Portraits of Strength” is a painting series that I’ve completed over the past three weeks while I was recovering from a pulmonary exacerbation with home IV meds. It was a nod to a self-portrait that I took back in 2014 when my health started to crumble, when I instinctively leaned into creativity to cope before I could even fully understand how powerful of a self-care act creativity could be.

When you look at a mountain, you’re merely seeing the outer shell. But, similar to an iceberg, the mountain extends deep, with layers upon layers until arriving at the final layer, floating atop the fluid layer of earth’s mantle. I suppose this is not so different when thinking about anyone living with an invisible illness or any invisible struggle, where the outer layer only shows a very minuscule part of the whole story.

While the mountain itself is a symbol of strength, it is only so because it is so mighty in relation to the surrounding landscape, which is one of the reasons why I’ve painted topography maps overlaying the sky. It also offers a symbolic representation of how it is the surrounding environment/people in my life that ultimately hold me up and provide me with the strength to persevere.

Mountains have been shaped and evolved over millions of years, slowly changing and adapting in the face of countless powerful elements and geological processes to become the versions that we see today. And yet, despite the endless forces working against them, here they are: strong, ferocious and resilient as ever. And I can’t help but reflect: no wonder the mountains always leave me in absolute awe.