Recipe for Art: Q-Tip Painting

Sometimes during flares or especially painful lesions, those of us with HS are stuck in a loop of depression and inactivity. Art helps us to process our feelings, reprogram our brains and release tension. Art is personal, not perfect, and the goal of this piece is not perfection. For this particular project you will need paper, a fine-tipped marker, cotton swabs, and various acrylic paint colors. All of these items can be found at a dollar store.

Taking our minds off of the pain

This project will go relatively quickly. You will want to think about your design first, and draw part of it with your fine-tipped marker - the part that probably can't be easily created with the cotton swab dots. For instance, you could draw the body and antennae of a butterfly, and leave the wing portion to the dot-making. You could work on forming a spaceship - first draw in the windows and maybe an occupant, but then dot-dot-dot the rest of the spaceship into place.

Why dots? It's a repetitive motion that doesn't require a lot of thought, but the advantage is that it will take your mind off of the pain without much effort.  It also doesn't require great range of motion, so if you are suffering from an especially tender underarm area, you might still be able to do this. Please recycle when you can. If you aren't pleased with the outcome of your picture, try again! As always, please recycle whenever possible.