One of the most prolific artists in the Chronic Marketplace is ME/CFS sufferer and artist Cristina Mercier-Gouin, from Montreal, Canada. It has been six years since Cristina first succumbed to ME/CFS, and in the process, she has amassed more than 1,500 digital drawings, many of colorful whimsical creatures bearing with her signature quirky print overlays.
In her words: “May 1st, 2015, it was a Friday, I realized that it was already a while since I woke up still tired. I got up and started my day. A communication solutions designer, I had been self-employed for two years and my business was going well. Meetings, phone calls, administrative work, I accomplished my tasks as usual. In the early evening, I felt a heavy, sticky tiredness, weighing down on my shoulders. The next day was worse and the day after that even worse.
Quickly, my days became shorter and shorter and my nights longer and longer. Pain, migraines, tinnitus, dizziness, confusion and other disturbing symptoms appeared. After six months of multiple failed tests and investigations, my doctor confirmed to me what I already knew: I had myalgic encephalomyelitis, or ME/CFS. In the meantime, I had gradually lost my faculties: I could no longer concentrate, work, read, walk, live alone. Since then, under house arrest almost permanently, I spend more than half of my days in bed.
It took me at least two years to grasp the contours of this new reality and to find some meaning in it all. Creation has always been part of my life. I came there first through music, then poetry; I studied and obtained a bachelor of arts before devoting myself to dance for more than fifteen years. It was obvious to turn to my imagination to reconnect with a part of myself.
A few years ago, I saw an exhibition by visual artist Ellsworth Kelly at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. For years, he had been sketching plant forms almost every day, very different from his usual production. I had found this production discipline interesting and I thought I would like to adopt it. At the end of 2016, after almost two years of ME, I started drawing, first on paper, in ink and colored pencil. But the use of materials was complicated. Each time I had to set everything up and put it away and even though I had a briefcase, it was difficult for me.
So I chose to work on my tablet. It’s the first thing I do when I wake up, without even getting out of bed! I have accumulated over 1,500 drawings. I use Tayasui Sketches for iPad, with a stylus. This is an interesting application because it allows layers to be overlaid and there are emulation tools for almost any medium (watercolor, ink, pastel, airbrush, etc.).
My sources of inspiration vary. Sometimes I draw a few random lines and it slowly takes shape. I keep a lot of images in reserve, photos gleaned here and there from the internet, which I use to stimulate my imagination. I rarely have a precise outline; I let myself be carried away by the chance accidents of creation.”