Christina Baltais is an ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis) advocate and visual artist who resides in Toronto, Ontario. She has lived with mild/moderate ME/CFS for the past 18+ years, and uses creativity as means to communicate and process her experiences living with a heavily stigmatised and misunderstood disease. She also co-organizes awareness and fundraising campaigns (#GoBlueForMECFS, The ME/CFS Arts & Crafts Auction) that foster a sense of connection and creativity within the ME community.
Christina has a BSc in Nutrition and Nutraceutical Sciences from the University of Guelph, and nearly completed her ND degree from the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine, when her ME/CFS progressed significantly in 2015. Since then she has been using photography, collage, makeup art, and sculpture to explore the intersection between art and advocacy. Common themes expressed in her body of work include: grief, isolation, loss of identity, interactions with the medical care system/society, and the actual experience of various symptoms of ME/CFS (e.g. insomnia, vertigo, brain fog, post-exertional malaise, etc.) It is her hope that her artwork creates discussion around the difficult and challenging struggles those living with chronic illness face, both within our bodies, and with the outside world because of them.
Website: wordsasmedicine.com
Instagram: @wordsasmedicine
Facebook: Christina Baltais
