Journal #5
Painting Through the Pain: My Journey as an Artist Living with Rheumatoid Arthritis
Introduction
My Familial Essential Tremor started to be noticeable in my late twenties when I started flying for Pan American. My Dad and Sister had them, and now I did, but it was only in my left hand. I am right hand dominate, and I was able to manage my art with it very well for many decades. When I turned 60, I didn’t expect my greatest creative challenge would come again from my own body. For decades, my art has been about the balance between color and quiet, control and emotion. But when I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, everything changed.
Suddenly, the hands that had guided every pencil line and brush stroke began to hurt, really hurt. What was once effortless like signing my name, blending a tone with acrylics, drawing the curve of a figure, became a test of patience and adaptation.
There were moments I wondered if I’d have to stop creating altogether. But art, I realized, has a way of teaching resilience. It asks us to look again and to see beauty in what’s unexpected.
RA swollen right hand – could not even hold a pencil
It wasn’t just my hands that hurt, my feet did too. So much so that shoes I had worn comfortably for years became excruciating. The long hours I once spent standing at my easel seemed to also be over. Then flips-flops came to my rescue. They became such an important part of my daily life that I created a piece of art in their honor…Soul to Sole.
Soul to Sole
Adapting My Art – and Myself
As my physical abilities shifted, so did my art. I began to let go of perfection and welcome what I now call intentional looseness. That is the expressive freedom that comes when you stop fighting every tremor and pain and start working with it.
I moved toward mixed media, colored pencils, and collage, mediums that celebrate spontaneity. What once felt like a flaw began to add emotion and texture. A wavering line could suddenly express movement, fragility, even grace.
I have always loved Impressionism and was stunned to learn that one of my favorites, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, suffered terribly from RA. Like me, he developed it in his later years, around 50 and back then there were no effective treatments like today. Despite severe joint deformities, he continued to paint.
He adapted by devising assistive tools, modifying his grip, using bandages, and having help in managing his brushes and easel. He became my North Star example of creativity and adaptation in the face of adversity.
Every piece now holds not just color and light but also perseverance. My collections, like Women in the Water and my new Reclaimed Series, reflect that balance and vulnerability, strength, calm and struggle. Thoughtful art, finely made.
My inspiration Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Art as Resilience
Living and creating, with a chronic illness, is a daily negotiation. There are days I can work for hours, and others when I can’t hold a brush or pencil for long. But art has become my constant and always a reminder that creativity is not limited by circumstance.
My Rheumatoid Arthritis and Essential Tremors may have changed how I create my art, but they’ve deepened why I continue to do so. Each work is a conversation between control and surrender; between the artist I was and the one I’m still becoming.
When I sign “PC Adams” at the corner of a piece now, it’s not just a signature. It’s a small triumph and a reminder that beauty and meaning can still emerge from the unsteady moments.
Continuing The Journey
Every time someone brings one of my prints or originals into their home, they’re also taking home a piece of my story. It’s a story about adapting, enduring, and finding grace in imperfection.
Art, after all, isn’t about a perfect line. It’s about a human one.
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” Viktor Frankl…Man’s Search For Meaning
Woman in the Water Series – Waiting
La Quinta, Ca.
pcadamsart.com