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Message
Posted
Hi Paul its great that you are so positive and caring to boot. Sharing your experiences of finding solutions to help minimise the impact your disability has on your painting etc. is a great help to other artists struggling to cope with similar problems. Having had a discussion with Paul earlier today I found his can do attitude refreshing. I have arthritis in my hands so I will give them a try. However my more challenging difficulties stem from Parkinson’s so I have a distinctive tremor and also my hand writing ( and also sketching) can become very small when medication is wearing off. I find I need to support my hand for certain intricate jobs so use a mahl stick on paintings on an easel and a raised pad on things on a flat surface. Lewis I know what you mean about working larger as I am more control on bigger pictures so that’s exactly what I do! When I do small the detail become needlessly intricate for some reason!! Has anyone seen Billy Connely’s doodles like pictures?
Posted
What you're describing sounds to me like carpal tunnel syndrome - there is an operation for that, I'm sure your therapists have discussed it with you if that IS the problem. Of course, whether you'd want an operation is something else again.
My limitations, apart from fairly poor eyesight, are caused by arthritis - though I do get 'trigger fingers' as well: first time that happened I was in a meeting, and thought I'd had a stroke, as I couldn't open my hand. Realized it wasn't, before panicking. For some reason I nearly always get it when turning the pages of a newspaper! Has to be a newspaper, not a book - not that I wish to encourage the syndrome.
Physio does work - and so does wrapping something around your brush-handles; Sylvia's suggestion looks well worth investigating. By the way, I do a lot of typing (as you can tell by the number and length of my posts!) and that also helps to keep the fingers supple. Helps, won't cure, of course; but anything that keeps you moving the fingers is probably good.
Posted
Thank you Gillian , I haven’t seen Billy Connolly’s artwork but will give it a look . Thank you for your comments Robert , unfortunately it not Carpal tunnel syndrome , it has a fancy name . I believe it’s named after a Frenchman who was fascinated with the deformed hands of his servant so he removed them after his death. Very basically it’s a shrinking of the tendons that cause the finger to curl up , it can be delayed with treatments , as part of the process of closing it causes trigger finger.
Still I can use my hands but hold thing a bit different than I did, fortunately I’m right handed and it’s my left hand that is causing most of the problems at present . The hope is that the deterioration to my right hand can be slowed down , the way I look at it is if I can keep going I will be to old to lift a brush anyway , then again I could get run over by a bus tomorrow so just get on with it. We all have something that causes us problems etc and if we sat back and said I can’t then you never will do anything.
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