Tortured artists

Gallery exhibit gets into the heads of migraine sufferers

June 06, 2001|By Lola Smallwood, Tribune staff reporter.

Her head is wedged inside a massive steel vise, its screws tight to her temples.

Her face blurred.

This is how art expresses the unseen.

"Because you can't see a migraine, it's hard to communicate to someone -- who doesn't understand how disabling it can be -- what really happens and how they impact the person," said Suzanne Simons, executive director of the National Headache Foundation, based in Chicago since 1970. "Pictures communicate what words can't. They drive home what these headaches are like and how quality-of-life altering they can be."

The pictures that Simons is referring to are in the unusual collection of 25 paintings, sketches, multimedia and photographic art selected as winners of a remarkable competition called "Images of Migraine."

Spearheaded by the foundation, contest winners were chosen out of more than 200 entries from across the country. The works to be unveiled Wednesday at Hilligoss Gallery, 520 N. Michigan Ave., will be displayed through June 13 to commemorate National Headache Awareness Week.

Affecting more than 28 million Americans, about 13 percent of the population, migraines trigger many symptoms that are clearly illustrated in the winning pieces, which depict blurred vision, throbbing head pain and nausea.

What does a migraine look like?

One pencil drawing depicts a woman with a series of nails protruding from her head. In another piece, a woman lies in the fetal position with a pillow over her head. One of the most dramatic pieces involves a distraught subject, who appears to be pulling her eye from its socket, her probing fingers gray with agony. Because women are three times more likely to suffer with the disease, nearly all of the works in the collection were done by women.

Though it seems like an incongruous relationship, art and illness are not estranged.

Some art historians speculate that Vincent van Gogh's "swirling" painting style was a byproduct of the mental illness that would ravage his life.

Since the 1970s, art therapy has become a breakthrough in helping sufferers externalize their condition, manipulate it and figure out ways to deal with it.

"People respond very strongly to symbolic language and oftentimes people live by symbols rather than reality. So when people work in visualizing what happens to them during a migraine or whatever the problem, they begin to see it from another perspective," said Donald Seiden, an art educator who founded the post-graduate Art Therapy program at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1980. "For whatever reason and for all the reasons it offers people another avenue to understanding conditions."

But is it art?

Absolutely, said Tom Hilligoss, owner of the 8,500-square-foot Hilligoss Gallery, which showcases and sells mostly international representational works. The works in this exhibit will not be for sale.

He said the gallery decided to exhibit "Images of Migraine" as a way to illustrate how art fits into everyday life. "If you go to Art Chicago exhibits there are so many art styles and art forms that express the angst of the human personality, and this collection would be one to do that," he said.

That's what made the "Images of Migraine" so appealing to participating artists.

"I wanted my work to show the pain you endure (during a migraine) and the wonderful relief you feel when it's over," said Tiffany Slaybaugh, 24, of Knoxville, Tenn. She took the first-place $4,000 prize with her two-part multimedia montage aptly called "Pain and Relief."

In the first installment of her piece, a woman covers her face with her hands in visible discomfort. In the next scene, the hands cradle a heart as the woman looks toward the heavens, the words "freedom, rejoice, and breathe" pulsing from the image.

"I've had migraines off and on for the last five years and it's an unforgettable experience," she said. "I believe art is a great educator and people will be able to visualize, even if they won't be able to feel. Hopefully, my work will teach them understanding, compassion and empathy for sufferers."

Thomas Lolan's "A Migraine Moment."