See ME Expo started out as a Pinterest board, which will be utilised as an ever growing creative pool to draw from. On this website, I will host special exhibits featuring artists and collections from the See ME Expo Pinterest board. Each exhibit will have an ‘entry ticket’ asking for visitors to consider donating to the artist’s chosen ME charity to help raise funding for advocacy or research.
My goal is to create an engaging and entertaining way for family, friends, medical and social communities to learn about ME plus co-morbid illnesses such as dysautonomia. And to help patients feel more understood and less alone. This can be a terribly isolating illness due to the lack of understanding and education from healthy people and the medical community.
I also hope the exhibits and Pinterest board will inspire more creatives with ME to express their experiences through art despite their limitations. A simple line drawing, a quote, a photograph or movie clip from bed can be incredibly powerful and can give the creator a sense of purpose and achievement, even if it’s not up to their pre-illness standard.
There are many losses we feel due to the limitations of our body, and we must do everything possible to help patients not to lose sight of meaning, purpose and the light they still bring to this world, despite many being isolated in darkness.
Click image above to visit the See ME Expo Pinterest Gallery
If you’re a person with ME or a carer of one and you’ve created something expressing your experiences of how ME has impacted your life or loved one, I would love to hear from you.
Simply email Amanda: seemeexpo@gmail.com with a link to your creation if you have a website, blog or have shared on social media. Alternatively, you can attach your creation to the email and let me know the title and name you wish the creation to be called and credited to. Currently, I'm pinning creations to our Pinterest board and making a list of creators who wish to participate in future exhibits.
All creations must be the original work of the creator and reflect life with myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome. This invitation also extends to those people who are still undiagnosed, but have the hallmark symptoms of ME. I understand it can take years to get a diagnosis due to the lack of medical education. Some patients wait decades or are never officially diagnosed.
For news on upcoming events please visit my blog Illustrator Interrupted and follow #seeMEexpo