Artist Gets Sick, Left Unable To Draw—Then Something Amazing Happens – ryan

An artist who struggled with a devastating nerve illness for a year was left unable to draw—and has now won a prestigious art competition after managing to complete her artwork.

Emily Copeland, 32, lives in Vancouver, Canada, where she has worked as a professional artist for the past 10 years.

Her specialty is large, jaw-droppingly lifelike graphite and charcoal drawings of objects from barber chairs to binoculars and glass perfume bottles, which she sometimes shares to her Reddit account, u/emilycopeland.

Now, one of Copeland’s stunningly realistic artworks, this time of a bowling ball, has gone viral—along with the story behind it.

“It’s the only piece I’ve ever had to step away from entirely and revisit a year later,” Copeland told Newsweek, reflecting on the challenges that came with working on a texture that was “unlike anything I’d worked with before.”

“Capturing the galaxy effect, the white specks, and the glossy surface proved to be a real technical challenge,” she said. “I initially completed the outlines and worked on it for a few days before rolling it up and setting it aside.

“When I returned to it over a year later, it took just over another month to complete.”

Copeland was forced to put away her art for a year as she became “quite ill”—suffering from “severe organ inflammation,” which led to her spending a “significant amount of time in the hospital.”

And while she had persevered in creating art throughout her illness, things took a turn when it affected her nervous system.

“I developed full-body neuropathy, debilitating tremors, muscle weakness, and could barely walk,” she said. “At one point, I even experienced facial and ocular nerve issues, which was incredibly frightening. It was disheartening to not be able to do what I loved, and I felt like I lost a lot of purpose in my life.”

But, slowly, Copeland recovered, with treatments from vagus nerve stimulations to dietary change, and has described the past year as a “turning point.”

“I’ve slowly returned to my work, begun submitting old and new pieces to art competitions, and sharing more on platforms like Reddit,” she said.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 2.67 million artists in the United States workforce as of 2022, representing 1.6 percent of all workers in the U.S. Hill Strategies Research reports that as of 2021, there were 202,900 artists in Canada in 2021—or one in every 102 Canadian workers.

In March, Copeland’s bowling bowl artwork was awarded best of show, after being chosen for the Artist Space gallery’s Black & White Art Exhibition, and she joyfully shared the news, along with a photograph of the bowling ball, to Reddit’s r/mademesmile sub.

She wrote on the postwhich has received more than 69,000 upvotes since being posted on March 19: “After a year unable to draw due to a nerve illness, I won an art contest with this bowling ball drawing!”

Reddit users were astounded, as one commenter admitted: “I misread and thought you said you won this bowling ball in a drawing….. and then I realized this IS your drawing!!!! Incredible.”

“Your level of talent is crazy good. I really thought it was a photograph. Outstanding,” another praised Copeland, as one said: “That is absolutely amazing. Just…wow.”

And as another impressed user put it: “Congratulations. Both for your healing and incredible skill!”

Copeland told Newsweek the “support has been overwhelming—I’ve even won a few contests and finally feel like I’m regaining my confidence.

“Some of my latest pieces—The Barber Chair, Binoculars, and The Perfume Bottle—are works I’ve completed since fully recovering.

“I feel that my technique continues to grow, and I’m more inspired than ever. I’m profoundly grateful to be healing and to be creating again.”