Art showcase

Featured Artist: Rana

Rana is a 29-year-old self-taught Black disabled artist living in upstate New York. She creates art inspired by her journey with chronic illness, self love, and mental health. Rana lives with fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, chronic pain syndrome, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and chronic gastritis, and has been creating digital art since 2019 when she became disabled. She makes her living as an artist offering digital art commissions for portraits, logos, music covers and more, in addition to selling her designs as stickers and teaching classes on using Procreate. She is excited to join Opera Mariposa in raising awareness for fibromyalgia and other chronic illnesses!

“Social media is often a highlight reel of people’s lives….I suffer from multiple chronic illnesses. I spread awareness about them online to help people feel less alone and because I know what it’s like to not be believed.”

RANA

Click on each art piece below to view a full-sized version, image description, and insights from the artists.

Against a pink background, a young Black woman with with floral tattoos is wearing a lavender shirt, silver butterfly necklace, purple eye shadow and a silver nose ring. She lifts her hands to her curly dark hair, smiling at the viewer.
Against a pink background, a young Black woman with with floral tattoos is wearing a lavender shirt, silver butterfly necklace, purple eye shadow and a silver nose ring. She lifts her hands to her curly dark hair, smiling at the viewer.

Connect with Rana:

Colourful illustration of a Black woman with pink hair who is curled up, her head in her arms, with cracks spreading over her entire body including her aqua and black clothes. She is sitting on a pink blanket against a purple background, surrounded by stars. Black text surrounds her reading, Yes, I'm in pain all of the time.

Yes, I’m in Pain All of the Time

Colourful illustration of a woman with purple hair and olive skin, peeking out from behind a flowing pink blanket with her eyes closed and one relaxed hand showing. The image has a light aqua background, and is scattered with white clouds and pale yellow stars. Turquoise hand drawn text reads, Get some rest

Get Some Rest

Colourful purple illustration with an olive-skinned, blue-haired woman in an orange dress using a pink cane. The woman is covered in yellow flowers, and surrounded by white sparkles. Black hand drawn text reads, It is okay to use your mobility aid.

It Is Okay to Use Your Mobility Aid

Against a gradient blue background is a coolourful illustration of a baby blue teapot twined in forget-me-not flowers which are coming out of the spout, and surrounded by purple flowers, pink hearts, yellow stars and bubble letters underneath read, Blue Sunday

Blue Sunday (2024)

Created on the shared ancestral territory of the Mohican, Lenape, Stockbridge Munsee, Algonquin and Haudenosaunee (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, Tuscarora) peoples.

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