How Multiple Sclerosis affects my artwork

Recently a very cool friend of mine received the honor of an article in the Daily Light paper about how MS affected his music and ability to play. You can check it out HERE. I am so proud of my friend, Chris and all he's accomplished on explaining MS to people and raising awareness. It's an inspiration to me.

Now I'd like to share an online quote directed at me some time back.

"I don't think your condition is an excuse for bad artwork."

As many of you know, I'm the creator/writer/artist for my own universe of characters called, Galaxy Zento. To suggest my artwork is perfect would be a lie. I'm not perfect and I do my best with what I have left. The person who made that comment had no idea what they were talking about. So let me explain what it takes for an artist to put out awesome artwork.

Knowledge of form, good hand eye coordination and cognitive ability to transfer and translate from mind to paper. Seems simple right? Now lets look at that MS does to a person.

It destroys your freaking nerves. So hand coordination is shaky at best. If you look close enough at my work, you will notice that all my lines are wavy. All of them. Circle? Wavy circle. Oval? Wavy oval. Arms? Musculature? All with little waves everywhere. I can correct some on digital but even there I have to do what my messed up system allows if I ever want anyone to see it (this year).

Cognitive function is a mess. It's like trying to strain your thoughts through a colander or sifting mechanism and then make sense of the resulting mess. What I try to see in my mind and translate, is a fog. So I'm literally making up details as I go. Sometimes I can see it in my head really well. Other times, I can't see my character's faces. Try to figure THAT out. I get basic forms and basic shapes, then I have to muddle my through to make them work.

Now I tell myself that I simply have to own my own style and never give up. But it's not always that easy. There's so much of the story to tell and I don't know how much time I have to tell it. I'm racing against a clock of unknown time. It's headed for a point that I won't be able to draw a stick figure.

If you follow the link about and go through the albums, you can see differences in the pictures that show days that my poor head wasn't quite up to the job at hand. Sometimes I come up with good looking stuff, sometimes I don't and I have a lot of  trouble fixing it.

"Just find an artist." I do have someone on board, but please don't say this to me. I don't have up front funds and it dismisses the fact that this is a huge piece of myself that's fading decades before it should.

So, as you view the artwork of Galaxy Zento, know that every success is dedicated to others like myself (especially youth). Someday, I may have artists who put in because they believe in my reasons and can fall in love with the characters, but until then (and even after) I will continue this fight.

The Church of Anti-Vaccine

Thanks to the pure abuse of scripture, thousands of idiots are exempting their children from vaccines. I wondered just how there could be anything in the bible that applies to vaccines, but then I underestimated the sheer power of crazy. Here they are:

I Corithians 6: 19-20, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? …Therefore honor God with your body.”

II Corinthians 7:1, “…let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. 

So, essentially, they take their unproven ideas that vaccines are somehow malevolent poisons and apply them to these scriptures. Then they put it all into a tidy little letter to the schools or whoever and get themselves exempted. This is just one reason that 45% of Michigan residents are living in areas of high risk for outbreaks. Just check out THIS article on the matter. OH, and they're actually HAVING outbreaks and NO the sick people aren't vaccinated.

This got me thinking. Just how do you make anti-vaccine belief into a religion? What would the requirements be? Well, wonder no more. If you want to be part of the Church of Andrew Wakefield, here's all you have to do!

1: As the name suggests, you must worship Andrew Wakefield. Tell everyone else it's about God, but you really pray to Andrew because he's the guy!

2: Dismiss science as fakery unless it comes from Andrew Wakefield. Because only those who follow Andrew know real science. 

3: The official prayer is not putting your hands together; rather it's putting your fingers in your ears and shouting "LALALALALALALALA".

4: Believe that shaken baby syndrome is really because of vaccines. The broken bones occur because vaccines let the demons in and they fly the baby around the room.

5: If injured you must bathe in colloidal silver. Never go to the doctor unless they are vetted and accepted by Andrew Wakefield. So just stuff your guts back in your stomach. Natural healing is always better.

6: You must have two shrines to Andrew Wakefield in your home. One must be in the living room and one in the bedroom (wink wink).

7: Thou shalt embellish and exaggerate everything in support of condemning vaccines. If it sounds like facts it's good enough.

8: If someone comes close to proving you wrong you must go into a rage and accuse them of being government shills. They probably are anyway.

9: You must know the 28 studies that support Andrew Wakefield. You must frame them, put them on your wall, and recite them every day.

10: You must learn cherry picking. It's okay to accept information that seems like it supports your beliefs, even if that information comes from someone you condemn on all else. By the way, the annual cherry picking contest is every spring.

11: Forget the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, we like Andrew, Mother Nature, and the CDC Whistleblower.

12: No matter what, the possibilities of death and blindness are way better than ever having autism. Same goes for becoming a vegetable.

I think that's a pretty good start for the church and hey, freedom of religion right?