My friends at The Letter tuned me in to Ariana’s work and I just felt she needed more than a typical two-sentence post.
Ariana has a skin condition called dermatographia, which means that upon scratching her skin, raised red lines appear. And here’s why I love her:
Rather than hiding under a rock, Ariana uses her condition to create temporary body art. And I should clarify: gorgeous temporary body art.
What an example Ariana is to the rest of our community. Are we allowing our originality to shape our artwork? Or are we holding back the “conditions” that we each have, afraid that we’ll be deemed too different, outdated or amateur?
I’d love to see more Arianas of the world. And I challenge myself and all of you to search within you to find what makes you different. For some of us, it’s more apparent. Maybe you don’t have a glaring skin condiiton, but you do have thinning hair that inspires you to create paintings with your hairbrush.
But for the rest of us, your “condition” lies within. Take a few days to find it. Whether you’re prone to stress/anxiety, have trouble spelling, or are working toward an incredible goal— let that speak through your artwork.
Chances are, the rest of us will notice.
Link: Ariana Page Russell
this is so interesting! I too have dermatographia, but never, ever thought of it being art :) once again, you show us people of real genius!
What an amazing concept. I love how a stressful condition can be turned into something beautiful and inspiring. You are on a roll today!
thank you, thank you for posting this! i’ve had that very image bookmarked for ages and had no idea who the genius is behind it.
xo
Kelly
you’re welcome, dear!
Wow! Thanks for sharing! Her images and ideas are gorgeous.
thanks for linking this! so ineteresting!
great post!!!
what a lovely post, and thanks for offering a chance for me to take a moment and be reflective.
Loved this post!
so eloquent. so inspiring. thank you.
thank you— it’s the least i could do. ariana is just so inspiring.
yes…love!
Absolutely amazing.
hey! i have dermatographia too! (thankfully its never occurred to me to hide under a rock). usually i only use it to write words on my arm when i’m bored. though i have thought of being a bit more adventurous, and this was really interesting.
Hey Erin, that’s great that you managed to highlight Ariana’s work more than I had time to. From the comments, it’s clearly been appreciated by few people :-)
This is super fascinating. I really enjoyed looking through her work on her website. Thanks for mentioning her!
Oh how cool, Alex!!!???!!!
mesmerizing :~)
this is so interesting, it is great exploring the archives ;) and it’s great to see someone making some major lemonade out of the lemons life has given her.