M E.
The Bigger Picture.
An exhibition of paintings, sculpture and poetry.
Showing one persons struggle towards an understanding and an acceptance of living with ME / Chronic Fatigue.

Forty Hall Gallery
Forty Hill, Enfield Middx.

6th May – 31st May 2009. ME Awareness month.

Opening hours
Wednesdays – Sundays from 11am – 4pm
Meet the artist Saturday 16th May 2009 11am – 4p

Following on from a successful show last year at Millfield House, Edmonton.
This exhibition for the first time shows all of the original work and poetry produced by the artist in his fight to understand and come to terms with the life altering condition ME.
It includes images never seen before in public and shows this substantial body of work in its entirity

Quotes from the general public from last years showing of prints at Millfield House.

“I went to see this exhibition about the reality of living with ME, and it was truly amazing and inspiring. It told the truth and spoke many frank words.”

“An extremely courageous, honest, frightening account of the suffering of this person with ME. The prose poetry drawings and paintings and sculptures are very expressive and also well done in a Dali like way. Before this exhibition I didn’t realise the amount of pain suffered.”

“Stunning very enlightening collection of art. This deserves a bigger audience. Best wishes.”

“Having a nephew who has been ill for many years since 16 anything that can be done to make people aware of this illness is good.. I feel he has had his life taken away from him. The government whom I have telephoned written too on many occasions just does not appear to take the necessary for research into this illness a priority. Thank goodness there are others who care to try to make a stand. This exhibition is most interesting. Your work has so much and even though you have a permanent challenge you still give”

“A beautiful collection of artwork and poetry which I am sure is an important exhibition for both me sufferers and the general public”

“Its an amazing collection of prose and pictures which is a credit especially to the ME community”

“Beautiful work. Haunting and disturbing. Arresting images that evoke feelings of isolation and despair”

“Really powerful stuff the best exhibition I have seen here. I love the mix of poetry mingled with the art. Fantastic personal, soul searching I love it.”

“Creative and fluid. Dali inspired mellowness- beautiful concept, creative with wood. Really glad to have stumbled on your work.”

“Just the way I have been and still am feeling.”

Press release from Millfield arts centre

This month Millfield arts centre hosts a very important exhibition by artist Steve Craig, exploring in a very personal way the effects and responses to the often misunderstood virus ME/chronic fatigue. The exhibition is a mix of paintings and sculpture mostly abstract, much of it clearly influenced by dali, yet retaining a powerful and haunting message full of pain beauty and isolation. The exhibition is premised with a sign that describes ME in some detail it reads:
Me An immunological disorder, a disease of the central nervous system, An organic Nuero immune disorder. Not Yuppie flu, Nor a midlife crisis, hypochondria, psychiatric illness, work shy, women’s problems, depression, agoraphobia, school refuser, or a middle class disease. Its a real chronic illness affecting some 250,000 people in this country. Most of whom have had the above said to them at least once by a doctor, a member of the family, friends or work colleagues before during or after diagnosis.

The series of paintings show a small but complete body of the artists work from the last ten years, and built together over the last four years to convey the reality of an illness that is often misunderstood, and misrepresented. Though it can be seen at first glance as acutely self absorbing in the directness with which the artist addresses his own illness, the images are haunting and evocative, juxtaposed throughout with small poems, and detailed descriptions of the artists experience.
The paintings show abstract dali esque figures that seem to be trapped or reaching out to a world beyond the illness. Particularly haunting is a small ghostly watercolour, almost fading into insignificance amidst the louder and bolder abstracts on either side of it. The painting is a rendition of a sculpture that the artist produced when he was well but far from happy with. It shows the artist as a pale abstract ghostly figure with extended limbs, evoking a sense of clumsiness and lack of control, and a pallet springing from the arm as a part of his body as he leans into an empty easel, with no canvass, representing a powerful symbol of the unknown in the subjects life.
Surprisingly the charities that support me do not get government funding, indicating how marginalised the disability is in the public eye. This exhibition is important in the way it adds to the disability debate.

I am publishing the following charities on the Givingallery site as they have all provided me with information or help and support over the last ten or so years since I have been diagnosed with the illness.
I have placed them in alphabetical order. Each charity does excellent work and I would recommend finding the time to visit each of their websites.
There is such a debate within the ‘ME Community’ about how the illness should be treated. Many are justifiably angry about how they have been ‘treated’ by the system and as a result have very strong opinions, as to how effective treatment should be planned.
In my own management of the illness I have tried to keep an open mind about how it is to be ‘treated’, and have undergone, cbt, get and anything else that’s out there. For me the expert patient / living well programme proved the most helpful. However I have great sadness in the way debate about treatment is fragmenting the voice of those managing the illness on a daily basis.
Because of this I have chosen not to belong to any one organisation, so I can be free artistically. My artwork , poetry and comments are purely personal and do not in anyway reflect the aims and ethos of any of the groups I have mentioned below.
I truly hope however that we all have the humanity within us to accept the fact that different people respond differently to treatment programmes and that as fellow managers of the illness (I hate the word sufferer) we are not aggressive towards those who are benefiting from psychological interventions. As for me, my opinions can be clearly seen in the poetry and artwork showing the journey I have undertaken towards my current thinking of how I manage me.

www.afme.org.uk
Action for M.E. is the UK's largest charity dedicated to improving the lives of the 250,000 people with M.E. They campaign for better services and treatments; provide information; provide vital telephone support lines and also invest in further research into cause, diagnosis and cure.

www.ayme.org.uk
A National charity supporting young people with the illness. They have a great website with everything you need to know explained in a simple to understand and positive format. Well worth looking at any age.

www.meassociation.org.uk
A National charity, one of the longest established that has a wide remit supporting research and local groups. Their honorary Medical Adviser is Dr Charles Shepherd who is known throughout the world as a champion of those living with the illness.

www.meresearch.org.uk
This national group has done a great deal to promote biomedical research into the illness, and supports fully the stance of the World Health Organisation that the illness is not psychologically based and is an organic biomedical condition.

www.investinme.org
Has an amazing website and is pushing hard for Biomedical research into the illness.


www.25megroup.org
This national charity is dedicated to supporting the 25% of people with severe ME who are housebound and bedridden. This organisations work is critical and often isolated due to the nature of those it specifically targets.

My respect to you all out there managing ME, or looking after those whose lives are devastated by this appalling illness.
Steve Craig.
Givingallery