These paintings are to bring awareness, help understand and portray some of the emotions that come with a life changing surgery. This is an on going project, contact me through commissions if you are someone who might be interested in participating.
Sofia- Chiari Malformation
Using the participants medical imaging from before and after surgery I create two
paintings. One representing pre operation and the other representing post operation.
This is Sofia, she had Chiari Malformation which is defined as a condition in which brain
tissue (part of your cerebellum) extends into the spinal canal. This condition can present a wide
variety of symptoms like neck pain, headaches, difficulty swallowing, ear ringing, problems with
muscles and coordination, along with many more symptoms. The surgery to correct this
condition is a decompressive craniectomy and or Laminectomy which involves removing part of
the skull or spine to make more room for the cerebellum.
After talking with Sofia, she concluded that red best represents pre operation and green,
blue and a little bit of brown best represents post operation.
Elysa- Ulnar Abutment Syndrome
This is Elysa, she had Ulnar Abutment Syndrome which is when the ulna bone is longer than the radius in the forearm. The surgery to correct this is an ulnar osteotomy which is a procedure where the ulnar bone is cut, removing a thin slice of the bone to shorten it, and then pulling the two pieces of bone together and fixing them with a plate and screws. Elysa didn’t see much of a difference in quality of life after the procedure.
After talking with Elysa she thought green best represented pre operation and blue and purple best represented post operation.
Haggerty Arts 