The Agony in my Abdomen (2)

Creator

Abigail Woolls

Preview

Creation Date

2024

Description

I’ve been an artist my whole life. I convey symbolic experiences with my drawings; I express ideas and feelings — which I normally have a hard time articulating — with my poems; I weave intricate tales with the songs I sing. I love to create that which cannot be said with simple words. With this artist book, I was able to do just that; I wished to tell the story of my painful and agonizing journey with childhood abdominal migraines, and I did so by honing in on a specific moment in my life where it affected me the most, reimagining it into a sort of poetic experience with accompanying powerful visuals. As such, I made the artistic choice to have the words follow the form of the drawings, in order to create a sense of flow, and to bring emphasis to the individual sensory-based feelings that I went through in that particular moment. I utilized several references while creating my images, and then I reworked them into my own style, in order to provide a sense of originality. I was inspired to use a very minimal amount of words in order to communicate how, in that moment, I couldn't think or feel much beyond the incredible amount of pain that I was enduring. All other sources of stimuli were merely in the background for me — the torment largely overtook all else. At the end, I wanted to include a realistic depiction of the abdomen, as well as the researched characteristics of the affliction – which also happened to be what my doctors told me – what my parents told me, and my own personal experience regarding abdominal migraines as a whole, in order to incorporate all that I’ve learned, either through newly acquired knowledge or experience. In making this piece of art, I — of course — learned the skill of stitching a pamphlet book, and it also allowed me to deepen my skills as an illustrator, a writer, and an artist as a whole. Furthermore, it brought my attention to a whole new way that I could start expressing my thoughts and emotions, and then subsequently share them with others if I so choose. It’s a powerful method, and one that I believe I’ll be using in the future – perhaps in regards to my mental health, instead of my physical health.