Artist showcase

An embroidery on bone white linen. There are many coral-like neurons in the vague shape of a brain embroidered in shades of blue. The bottom section is navy blue and transitions to a lighter blue at the top. The text at the bottom reads: she was tributaries, all electric.
Image description: An embroidery on bone white linen. There are many coral-like neurons in the vague shape of a brain embroidered in shades of blue. The bottom section is navy blue and transitions to a lighter blue at the top. The text at the bottom reads: she was tributaries, all electric.

she was tributaries (2016)

by Lia Pas

This piece is part of Lia’s Symptomology series, showcasing her “invisible” (non-apparent) ME/CFS symptoms. Hand-embroidered in cotton thread on linen, it was loosely based on a drawing by a Spanish neuroscientist named Ramón y Cajal. As Lia explains, it’s also about “exploring the feeling of how electric my neurology felt when I first got sick with ME/CFS”.

Lia relates the piece to brain fog (which is a layperson’s term for serious neurocognitive* dysfunctions that occur in certain chronic illnesses, like ME/CFS, fibromyalgia and Long Covid). “My experience of brain fog is more like a snowstorm than a fog,” Lia says. “My brain sparks and is too full. Trying to think is like walking against the wind in a whiteout blizzard.”

*neurocognitive: having to do with your brain (neuro-) and thinking (cognitive).

Lia Pas (she/her) is a Saskatoon-based multidisciplinary artist who works in image, text, and sound exploring body and states of being. She was an active composer/performer and poet/librettist until 2015 when she became disabled with ME/CFS. Since then her work has focused on fibre arts and writing with some small forays back into music. Her symptomatology and anatomy embroideries have been featured in numerous online publications, are part of the SK Arts permanent collection, and can be seen at liapas.com or on her Twitter and Instagram.


Enjoy Lia’s work? Until June 1, 2025, you can enter to win art postcards and a book featuring Lia’s exquisite creations – all in support of the ME | FM Society of BC!

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