February 4th, by Virtue

During this year’s Winter Slipstream we offered more indoor sessions than we have in the past. One of the indoor activities available this year was to put something together for Diabetes Art Day. Lee Ann, the founder of Diabetes Art Day, describes the purpose of the day as follows:

Diabetes Art Day is a web-based initiative for the Diabetes Online Community to “tell a story” about life with diabetes though creative visual expression. It’s a way for us to tell our stories so we can connect and share with each other and with our loved ones. It’s a way to generate diabetes awareness outside of the DOC [Diabetes Online Community] by sharing artwork on Facebook, Twitter, blogs and community websites… Whether you have lots of experience making art or none at all, Diabetes Art Day is for you to show the world what it’s like to live with diabetes in that “a picture is worth 1000 words” kind of way.

Unfortunately, such eloquent words escaped me while introducing the session, and after giving a general description of the origins of Diabetes Art Day I summed it up as: “Basically, it’s a space where you can beat the shit out of your diabetes… using art!” Nevertheless, after breaking out the colourful paper, scissors, glue, and glitter there was a good group of us ready to work on illustrating our thoughts and feelings about life with diabetes.

This is Becky’s first piece, with the blue circle for diabetes in the background.

Becky’s second piece of BG testing finger freckles.

Jill, the left side as her non-diabetic self and, the right, herself experiencing life with type 1 diabetes.

Chelsea’s picture, where the person hidden behind the page is her before diagnoses, when she didn’t have a clear idea of herself. Her diabetes has given her a clearer picture of who she is, as it has lead to many new friends and a career with a diabetes organization.

This was the first piece I (Virtue) crafted. I couldn’t decide if I was happy or sad in this picture. I think I mostly felt sad, but didn’t want it forever drawn on my face, because that’s not how I feel all the time.

Again by me (Virtue,) because diabetes has made me think of food as medicine.

Sarah’s piece about her diabetes.

Lindsey’s image of life with diabetes.

Scully‘s creation about the different aspects of her diabetes. Note that those are glucose tabs in her pockets (not boobs.) You can also read Scully’s own post about Diabetes Art Day over on her blog, Canadian D-gal.And don’t forget to check out all the other awesome 2013 submissions from around the world on the official Diabetes Art Day site. Also, you can do a Twitter search for the hashtag #DArtDay to see peoples’ contributions on their own blogs.

Thanks again to the people who participated and let me share their work here, and to Lee Ann for spearheading this great project!