A Journey of Emotion Series
Part 1

Wayne's first online exhibition of his work takes you on a journey of where The Painless Artist started.

 

In 2023 Wayne suffered a second spinal emergency for Cauda Equina Syndrome, in a nutshell, his lumbar spinal disc completely herniated and crushed the spinal nerve roots from the waist downwards. At the time he was experimenting with a loose vibrant colourful painting which he was trying to finish as a gift for a family member.

 

Due to his existing long-term damage and pain, he believed this to be a protracted flare-up from experience and visiting the Doctors. Every time he moved he would get extreme pain and soldiered on determined to finish it, but sadly the pain became too extreme and back to the doctors, then A&E then a very prompt diagnosis and surgery.

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After surgery, Wayne had seen something strange but revealing within plain sight. Multiple spines including vertebrae towering over the poppies but also how they mirrored on both sides of the canvas. These findings intrigued Wayne and how the reality of physical trauma and pain sensations was a snapshot of the subconscious. He then started exploring art as a self-therapy to the chronic trauma surrounding cauda equina and the ripple effect it has on all aspects of your life, even to this present day.

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Wayne embarked on therapy through the support of Cauda Equina Champions Charity outreach to CES sufferers. Wayne found the more honest he was about his feelings and experiences the better the artwork.

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His artwork process is quite unique, he finds that when he is between sleep states his visions are quite vivid and sketches them down as best he can. Wayne is also spontaneous in some of his paintings or digital artwork. An example of this he would create a visual presentation of human vertebrae interpreted from his thoughts, the history of his MRIs, and old university anatomy books and portray a blend of all of these and add a positive symbolic gesture of green flowers emerging from a degrading structure, with the added mental positivity and using colour, mindful elements to give the viewer a snapshot of his mind.

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He also unleashes his thoughts in 5-minute sketches and doesn't question what he has put down until reflecting upon it afterwards, which makes perfect sense to him. He says "It's a reflection of the subconscious".

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The more he has researched this style of creating the more he realises this is based on Andre Breton's principles of Surrealism which were followed by like's Salvador Dali, Yves Tanguy, Georgia O'Keeffe et al.  

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Another layer to Wayne's work will be researching whether art can help calm down the nervous system and the subconscious. Thus in turn not feeding into one of the drivers of pain, which will help him as one of his pain management tools for life. Sadly he has the challenge of spinal injuries, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, central pain syndrome and dystonia so he is keen to keep learning and adapting to try natural ways of alleviating pain and enjoying the arts again. 

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All these above elements have come together to help shape Wayne's creativity, this is where The Painless Artist was created. Wayne hopes you enjoy his first exhibition as much as he enjoyed creating it. This is the first part of the exhibition of The Journey of Emotion.