A little over a month ago, I entered into a blogging agreement with Jon, the owner at My Identity Doctor. While I updated the official disclosure page at that time, I held off on the official announcement until I got going blogging.
The deal: Jon offered me a position blogging 6-8 times per month. He’s paying me and has offered product discounts.
What this means: For this site? It means from time to time I’ll probably let Kerri on the Prairies readers know of new posts I’ve written for My Identity Doctor if i feel they’re relevant to what the core themes of my blog are. Otherwise, it means very little for what I do here, which is chronicling my life. For the My Identity Doctor blog? It also still means that my views on my own–however, science is science–which is what my primary focus will be–and I believe strongly in the necessity of medical ID jewelry, which I’ve communicated before on this blog.
If you have any questions about the agreement, shoot me an e-mail and we can chat–transparency is a big deal to me, and I want to be sure that anybody reading my blog or having any concerns still feels that transparency.
Otherwise, if you’d like a fresh primer on who I am, head on over and check it out!
Elisheva sent me a link to a Kickstarter project the other day. I have never backed a project so quickly in my life (I couldn’t remember my password, which caused issues but ALL BECAME WELL). To say that this project intrigued was an understatement. Essentially, I immediately was trying to figure out how to get in touch with the creator of this project so we could talk more about it.
Brandon Vosika is in the process of creating an art book called Shake Well Before Use: A Book of Paintings About Asthma. Each book will be professionally printed and then hand-bound by Brandon, resulting in a really special and unique compilation of original art focused on asthma. Brandon and I are only a couple years apart in age, and I was stoked to find someone my age also pursuing asthma advocacy in a creative way. Within 12 hours of finding out about the Kickstarter, Brandon and I threw multiple e-mails back and forth, and put this Q&A post together so that more people can learn about his project.
Thanks, Brandon, for jumping on board with this!
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Shake Well Before Use – Art by Brandon Vosika.
Kerri: Hi Brandon, thanks for collaborating on this with me! So, because Shake Well is an art project, I guess we’d better start with the basics: when did you get involved in art? What started that part of the journey for you? Brandon: I started painting very silly things about 8 or 9 years ago, in high school. From then to now I’ve taken several long and short hiatuses to record music or do other creative sorts of things like that but it’s always come back to painting. The start of this journey of my art came in a rather cliche way actually… I was quite sad and didn’t know what to do with myself. So I decided to start painting. This is the case with many people, I know. The only difference for me what they I never stopped and was able to grow and mature and my silly sad art grew and matured with me (thank god) because now I don’t find what I do sad anymore. Maybe a little silly still… I don’t know. I like my work.
KM: I love when things that start out of places of desperation truly come to be big markers of personal growth (growth is a big theme around here, too). The other component of Shake Well is obviously the asthma. How does asthma play into your life? What’s your asthma story?
BV: Well, I’ve had asthma for 22 years, I’m 24 years old now. My mom and dad separately tell me little horror stories about my wheezing and doing constant nebulizer treatments and having to go to the hospital and whatnot when I was a baby. I’m so glad they’re good parents! But yeah, it’s an every day thing for me.. I’ve always got an inhaler with me wherever I go. Thankfully I don’t have to use it all of the time but it is something that I need at least once a day. It’s Advair before I go to bed and depending on how I feel when I wake up, maybe in the morning. You learn to make allowances for yourself and learn what you need to do for your particular case. I have allergies as well so I take claritin, allegra or zyrtec most days. Vacuuming often, air purifier, keeping things clean, trying to be active but not to over do it (I have “sports induced” asthma) – that’s a big part of my life.
KM: I think there is a lot to be said about the balancing act that can be asthma and everyday life–and, I think
Our Lungs – Art by Brandon Vosika.
being a young adult only complicates things as per usual! To connect the asthma to the art . . . What made you decide to create Shake Well Before Use? BV: I decided to do the paintings about asthma after I had a bad attack and was forced to visit the ER. My week or so of recovery was a good time for the art to form. I realized that almost no one was making art about a disease I’ve had all my life and that over 300 million other people have around the world.. I decided to try and change that.
KM: That’s fantastic. It also alludes to something I often mention (do we share a brain and not know it? :)) in that “10% of the population has this disease . . . but where are they?”. Sometimes I feel like nobody is really doing anything about asthma–that’s why projects like Shake Well that literally paint asthma in a different light are so fantastic.
Aside from watercolour, what other mediums do you like using? Are you into any other types of art other than visual arts? BV: Watercolor with pen or pencil is the medium I use the most but second to that would be mixed media collage. Using anything from sawed/sanded/painted wood to antique magazine or paper clippings to paint and ink. I also enjoy a little sculpting, recording music, writing and general crafting.
Film and music are two definite passions of mine. I work in a record/movie store for a day job. I love new stuff, older movies, strange film bits.. I wont go into it but cinema is gorgeous. Music is as well obviously. Nearly every young person these days seems to live for music though so that seems boring even if it is the case. I love music!
KM: Completely true on the music thing–I’ve definitely encountered that too! Of course, there’s a big difference between simply being “into” music, and being a musician and creating music! What other things do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
BV: As life goes by you find new things to spend your time doing. you leave the old behind and start with the new. It’s the things that are always with you that really matter, I think. I spend my time painting, appreciating film and music, hanging out with good friends and trying to travel a little. Oh and time is spent helping customers at work (where I also get to hang out with friends all day). KM: Sounds like a great way to live :]. I have a similar work situation in which work is almost as fun as not work! Wrapping up with a little philosophizing here, what’s your favourite quote? BV: “Life is great. Without it, you’d be dead.” -From the movie Gummo.
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Images used with permission from Brandon.
Want to learn more about Brandon’s project and give him a hand? You can back his Kickstarter project for as little as $1, and receive cool incentives from $5–at as low as $20 you’ll receive a copy of the art book upon completion–I am very excited to receive mine!
To wrap up Asthma Awareness Month, I thought it would be interesting to vlog a day with asthma to give an idea of what things can be like. Though I’ve been sharing guest posts from my friends with asthma, they capture the big picture but not the finer details of the day to day intricacies of living with a chronic disease.
Asthma, though, can look immensely different from day to day and from person to person. I am extremely thankful for the willingness of some of my friends to rise up and join me in sharing what a day in their lives with asthma looks like (and, on very short notice)–and of course, if anybody else wants to contribute, by all means, please fire a video off to me!
Super special thanks to Steve for getting a video off to me on really short notice!
Steve and I filmed these in an overlapping block of time, so we really had no idea what the other person was doing. However, our perspectives really overlap in certain parts of these videos, which just blew my mind. Steve has really severe asthma, but if you know any part of his story, you’ll know that he truly rolls with it, does what he has to, and lives a really vibrant and active life regardless of his asthma.
However, despite “asthma” sharing a common name, and Steve and I having common passions . . . you will see that Steve’s day is dramatically different from mine.
(By the way, I’m convinced Steve is a pro video blogger in disguise. And I think he needs to do this more often. Also, Steve, I like your hoodie.)
Asthma: it’s a six letter catch-all.
It can have a host of symptoms from coughing, to shortness of breath, to wheezing, to chest tightness.
It can be asymptomatic, or relatively mild, or severe enough to require treatment in the intensive care unit.
It can be treated with inhalers and nebs, pills and injections.
It can affect somebody for two minutes a year, or twenty four hours a day.
It can be anything but simple, and there is no such thing as typical.
World Asthma Day was last Tuesday, and I am extremely frustrated that I missed it being in the hospital. I missed my five-year asthma-versary being sick. As for my World Asthma Day post, here it is. Late and without the buzz surrounding World Asthma Day.
But you know what? The first Tuesday in May or not, it still matters. It matters as much as it did on the day that it was created, and it will matter as much as it does until this stupid disease is cured. I feel asthma as both a blessing and a curse, but the reality is, I would probably be a different person without it–and I honestly don’t think i would be a better person without it. And I certainly would be missing a lot of amazing friends without it.
On World Asthma Day, though, at 3 AM PDT (5 AM CDT), from hospital rooms 3,035 kilometers apart in two different countries, through e-mails my friend Steve and I decreased the distance for moments at a time, as he dealt with a lot of hardcore shit at the same time as he was hospitalized yet again because of his asthma. Steve is not only the guy who is half responsible for my perspective on living with asthma being how it is, because of all he’s taught me and all he’s walked through with me . . . but because it’s when he gets sick, it’s also when I get the angriest about this stupid disease and the reality of the impact it can have on people. Yet, Steve’s story also contains a lot of positivity. As does mine.
There are echoes of conversations I’ve had with many people in this video–with Steve, with Jay, with Natasha and Elisheva and many others. And now, I’ll share them here.
Because I have the ability to change my own world. And having asthma doesn’t change that.
The guest posts will resume this week, and I am really excited to share them with everybody. Have an asthma story to share? E-mail me at kerriontheprairies [at] gmail [dot] com.
A year or so ago, I combined some words to invent the term badassmatic. Simply, a badass living with asthma. To be used in a sentence: Steve is the epitome of badassmatic.
Today, let’s define it. It is an honour to be the first ever guest-poster at my friend Steve’s blog Breathinstephen!
Please join me over there for some conversation on music, asthma, owning your health . . . and badassery!
