GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Susan DuBay has lived with chronic pain for about ten years. It was only two years ago she received a diagnosis for Loin Pain Hematuria Syndrome.
"There's not a high prevalence," said DuBay. "It's like, .12%. There's not a whole lot they can do but pain management, nausea meds, and not much else. I've never met anyone who has had this."
Prior to her diagnosis, she began an art piece explaining how she felt to communicate to her doctors. She said they are not finding what they were looking for for a while.
"I added the ground glass, because that's what it feels like when it starts in my kidneys and then it spreads out," said DuBay. "Feels like my entire body is filled with glass, and it's all tied in with the wire, like just stringing it through my body."
She used that original piece and in evolved it into two pieces that together make "The Art of Pain," her entry for this year's ArtPrize. Her entry is located at Gita Pita on Jefferson Ave. SE.
However, The Art of Pain is not just about DuBay. She reached out to others around the country who have the same diagnosis and incorporated their words into the piece.
"That triggered something," said DuBay. "Even though I knew I was sick, I knew I wasn't going to get better, it triggered something because they felt it too. Every single thing that I felt at one point or another is here."
A second art piece depicts how DuBay feels about her own personal pain, calling it, "how I feel during a flare that myself is bleeding into my sick self."
She hopes other people with chronic pain illness of all kinds can resonate with her work.
