There are unforeseen health issues that come as a result of painting an entire picture using your lips as a paintbrush.
Natalie Irish has learned this.
The Houston artist has acquired a pair of special bifocals with her doctor’s help to assist with the eye fatigue.
When your lips are pressed against a canvas, it’s kind of hard to see the big picture.
“I can’t actually see when my lips are touching a canvas so a lot of it is good aim,” she said.
Somehow Irish has been able to create some beautiful artwork, as seen in a viral video of her kissing a canvas enough times to create a portrait of Marilyn Monroe.
But there’s something else in the video that might catch the viewers’ attention. Irish’s injection port for her Animas Pump is showing.
Wearing an insulin pump has been a constant part of Irish’s life since she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 18 years old.
“I’m basically a cyborg,” she said “I need insulin to stay alive.”
Irish said what she once assumed was a “bad case of senioritis” evolved into her being too tired to function and eventually led to her diagnosis.
It was around this same time in 2001 that Irish began to dabble with a new form of art.
“I was blotting my lips on a piece of tissue and I thought, ‘I think I can paint with that,’” she said. “It was one of those things where I would dabble with it but I didn’t start promoting it until the past five or six years.”
Irish said her decision to make her insulin pump visible in the video and on a daily basis is a part of her attempt to start a discussion and educate people on type 1 diabetes.
“It’s an invisible disability,” she said. I don’t look sick and if I put my pump in my pocket you wouldn’t see anything different. I want to educate people and show that I’m not ashamed of it.”
Irish will be one of many "ambassadors" on hand at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's 10th anniversary Rock the Cure event at Sweetwater Brewing Company.
Starting at 7:30 p.m. on June 11, live music, beer and raffles at the brewery will help to raise money for the foundation.
Irish is planning to bring various lipstick colors so that attendees can participate in making a “group painting.”
The artist said she wants her message to others with diabetes to be an encouraging one.
“We can do whatever we want,” she said. “I made up my own job. It’s not going to hold you back.”
If You Go: 7:30 p.m. June 11. $50. Sweetwater Brewing Company, 195 Ottley Drive, Atlanta. www.jdrfrockthecure.org
