Even in rare, precious moments of clarity, the storm still hums at the edges, waiting to return.
Containing the Storm
This collage captures the search for shelter in another’s embrace during the relentless storm of ME/CFS. It’s about allowing yourself to be vulnerable, to ask for support, and to know that needing care is not weakness—but a quiet act of trust.
Shutting out the world
This collage is about the sound sensitivity and isolation of severe ME/CFS—especially in a crash. The headphones symbolize the walls we build to survive sensory overload, when even small noises feel unbearable. The woman’s body becomes the fragile space between the outside world and the storm inside. The moon above her is for the loneliness of those long, dark hours when you’re too sick to move, too wired to rest, and yet somehow still holding on.
Pocket of Energy
It’s symbolic of having only a brief calm between storms—a sliver of time to glimpse life beyond the grip of ME/CFS. The bird can’t be fully seen, just as freedom can’t be fully felt; even in rare, precious moments of clarity, the storm still hums at the edges, waiting to return.
Symptom Tsunami
This collage reflects how “rest” in ME/CFS is not true rest at all, but a kind of survival—lying motionless as the body weathers an unending storm, day after day.
Plucked from the sea
It reflects the experience of being uprooted from your natural environment and forced into a smaller, enclosed world—a habitat of isolation that both protects and imprisons.
The Sinking
This piece is about the turbulence of a severe flare, when symptoms surge like a storm and carry you further from the world you once inhabited.
I’m a Toronto-based artist and ME advocate who has lived with ME for over 19 years. My work bridges art and advocacy, using visual storytelling to foster understanding, compassion, and connection within the chronic illness community.
Christina Baltais
visual artist, advocate
Website: wordsasmedicine.com
Instagram: @wordsasmedicine
Facebook: Christina Baltais
List of Works
Christina Baltais
Containing the Storm
(2024)
collage, digital
40cm x 30cm
open edition
$200
Christina Baltais
Pocket of Energy
(2024)
collage, digital
40cm x 30cm
open edition
$200
Christina Baltais
Plucked from the sea
(2024)
collage, digital
40cm x 30cm
open edition
$200
Christina Baltais
Shutting out the world
(2024)
collage, digital
40cm x 30cm
open edition
$200
Christina Baltais
Symptom Tsunami
(2024)
collage, digital
40cm x 30cm
open edition
$200
Christina Baltais
The Sinking
(2024)
collage, digital
40cm x 30cm
open edition
$200