Danny Branscombe, 'The Fear'. Drawing, 2023
The Fear by Danny Branscombe
Drawing
Artist statement: It’s hard to communicate the mental weight of having many ‘small’ conditions, each individually tolerable, but collectively exhausting.
I suffer from chronic UTIs and thrush, often to the point of my urine being dark red with blood; I had cysts on my ovaries that needed surgical removal; I contracted the HPV virus that resulted in a year of repeated colposcopies and cervical biopsies until eventually being diagnosed with full cervical cancer; I then had a hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy; I also suffer from eczema, pityriasis rosea and impetigo - having outbreaks of all every few months; I was born with a club foot which, although corrected, also meant my knee was severely twisted, resulting in increasing daily pain and a recent diagnosis of arthritis; I also have Temporomandibular Joint Disorder causing crippling headaches and earaches; and in the past couple of years my hair has started falling out leaving bald patches (cause as yet unknown).
All of these little daily struggles, coupled with a very difficult few years due to life events, have resulted in a diagnosis of General Anxiety Disorder. This manifests in many ways, and I am starting to explore communicating the mental and physical feelings all this creates within me through my art. Having lived by the sea all my life, I am fascinated at how the expressive sea seems to mimic the moods and emotions of my own feelings, changing with each season, each day, each gust of wind. Using the sea to represent my anxieties seems very apt.
In this artwork - titled The Fear - I have tried to use the ocean to communicate the feeling of the night terrors I get - the feeling of waking up in the night and being so scared, so terrified, without knowing why.
Follow Danny on Instagram at @dannybranscombe
Danny Branscombe, 'The Fear'. Drawing, 2023
The Fear by Danny Branscombe
Drawing
Artist statement: It’s hard to communicate the mental weight of having many ‘small’ conditions, each individually tolerable, but collectively exhausting.
I suffer from chronic UTIs and thrush, often to the point of my urine being dark red with blood; I had cysts on my ovaries that needed surgical removal; I contracted the HPV virus that resulted in a year of repeated colposcopies and cervical biopsies until eventually being diagnosed with full cervical cancer; I then had a hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy; I also suffer from eczema, pityriasis rosea and impetigo - having outbreaks of all every few months; I was born with a club foot which, although corrected, also meant my knee was severely twisted, resulting in increasing daily pain and a recent diagnosis of arthritis; I also have Temporomandibular Joint Disorder causing crippling headaches and earaches; and in the past couple of years my hair has started falling out leaving bald patches (cause as yet unknown).
All of these little daily struggles, coupled with a very difficult few years due to life events, have resulted in a diagnosis of General Anxiety Disorder. This manifests in many ways, and I am starting to explore communicating the mental and physical feelings all this creates within me through my art. Having lived by the sea all my life, I am fascinated at how the expressive sea seems to mimic the moods and emotions of my own feelings, changing with each season, each day, each gust of wind. Using the sea to represent my anxieties seems very apt.
In this artwork - titled The Fear - I have tried to use the ocean to communicate the feeling of the night terrors I get - the feeling of waking up in the night and being so scared, so terrified, without knowing why.
Follow Danny on Instagram at @dannybranscombe
