Dear, Diabetes Awareness Art Series #1

Dear, Diabetes Awareness Art Series #1

This is the first piece in my Diabetes Awareness art series, and it’s called Disjointed.

This piece captures a feeling I kept hearing over and over again while speaking to people living with diabetes:
that sense of loss

The story behind the wings

Disjointed is inspired by Alexandria.

Before her diagnosis, she was on track to become a pilot, literally training to fly. Then she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, and suddenly the path she had worked so hard for was no longer available to her. Regulations. Limitations. Safety concerns. A hard stop.

In the most literal sense, she lost her wings.

She had support, but it doesn’t erase grief. It doesn’t replace a dream. And it doesn’t make it easy to watch your life split into a before and after.

Talking to Alexandria made one thing painfully clear to me:
people with diabetes are incredibly strong, not because they want to be, but because they have to be.

Why the wings are broken

The wings in this piece aren’t gone. They’re disjointed.

Because diabetes doesn’t always take everything away, sometimes it just makes things harder, slower, more fragile. It forces people to reassemble themselves again and again, in a world that rarely pauses to accommodate them.

And yet, they keep going.

They adapt. They learn. They survive.
Not quietly, but persistently.

Art as healing, not fixing

This painting isn’t meant to fix anything.
It’s not here to give answers or false optimism.

It exists to say:
I see you.
Your loss is real.
Your strength matters.

Art can’t cure diabetes, but it can hold space for the emotions that come with it. And sometimes, that’s a form of healing too.

What you can do

If this piece moved you, here’s how you can turn that feeling into action:

• Donate to diabetes research
• Support efforts to make insulin affordable for those who can’t access it
• Learn about diabetes beyond stereotypes
• Listen to people living with it.

No one should have to give up their dreams just to stay alive.

This is only the beginning of this series.
There are more stories. More wings. More voices waiting to be seen.

Best,

Edidiong