Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database

Worsham, Erin Brady
Headturner

A woman's profile occupies the foreground of this computer-generated image. She is depicted from the base of her neck up to near the top of her head. A blue device protrudes from her neck, and a small section of a ridged tube, presumably connected to the blue device, occupies the bottom right-hand corner of the image. The device is a tracheal breathing tube, shown in the online photograph of the artist that accompanies the image. Worsham suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), better known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

The lady in the artwork wears a polka dot blouse and a vibrantly patterned hat. Her eyes look directly forward, as though oblivious to the onlookers in the image's background, and her mouth hangs agape. She wears lipstick, eye shadow, and rouge.

A young boy's face with big eyes, rosy cheeks, and brown hair looks impudently at the woman from the lower right half of the image; his mouth holds a slightly upturned grin. Behind the boy and occupying the background stands a woman whose green eyes stare at the disabled lady's profile. The staring lady has long light brown hair and she wears lipstick, makeup, a purple kerchief, and a green dress. Partially separating the boy and the woman from the disabled lady is a thin band of blue background - presumably sky - that cuts down through the center, albeit the background, of the image.

A dull green border of blocks frames the scene. Each corner is decorated with a red heart, the points of which angle into the center of the image. Big block letters inscribe the artwork's title: the top of the frame reads "HEAD," the bottom reads "TURNER."

The artist investigates her 10-year battle with the social repercussions of ALS and life as a disabled individual.  In her own commentary on the piece she admits that "the rude indifference of people who stare will always hurt, but they can't be blamed for believing only their eyes." Worsham questions whether people are "baffled by the mouth that always seems to be smiling at some private joke, or repulsed by the drool that unexpectedly dribbles down the chin? Do they take my garbled speech as an indication of some mental disability, or assume that my thoughts and emotions are as frozen as my body?"

Worsham's mission is to educate the public to see beyond her atrophied body to the"[d]reams in words and images which I'm able through the wonders of technology to put down on paper as an artist and writer. I'm a productive, creative individual." (Quotations are taken from the web site to which this annotation is linked.)