As the Executive Director of the Chronic Pain Project, I've been profoundly moved by the art and vulnerability of others living with chronic conditions. While I am creative by nature, I don't always identify as an "Artist." The pieces I create are deeply personal reflections of my life with chronic migraine and fibromyalgia.

Through my work, I aim to make visible the often invisible nature of chronic illness. The variety of materials and techniques in my work isn't just artistic choice—it's a reflection of my adult ADD. I embrace the urge to switch between different media, allowing my restless creativity to guide me. This approach results in dynamic, multi-layered pieces that embody the complexity of my daily life.

Census of One exemplifies this intersection of data, embodiment, and traditional craft. The piece draws from quipu, the ancient Incan recording system that used knotted strings to track information and tell stories. People living with chronic pain often become obsessive trackers, searching for patterns that might explain their suffering. I spent months documenting my pain, and this work represents one month of that tracking.

Each colored string represents a week. The beads encode my daily reality: bad sleep, migraine medication, migraines themselves, fibromyalgia pain, low energy. Rather than leaving this data abstract, I wanted to give it physical form—to feel its weight in my hands. I fed my tracking spreadsheet and available beads into AI, which generated a table matching specific beads to specific days. The result is a tangible archive of invisible experience, a census of one body's journey through pain.

Like the quipucamayocs (Incan record keepers) who read meaning from knots, I hope viewers will see in these strands the story of what it means to live with chronic conditions—the meticulous documentation, the search for patterns, the desire to be believed. My art is an honest portrayal of my life: complex, ever-changing, and always seeking to find beauty in the midst of struggle.