Emily Bromberg is a painter and ceramic artist based in Seattle, Washington. She’s struggled with unexplained chronic pain for much of her life. Things dramatically intensified in 2021, however, forcing her to stop working.

It took two more years of visiting about a dozen doctors before she was finally diagnosed with Lyme disease and began treatment.

She has recently completed a body of work called “For your Convenience.” It is an art installation that combines paintings and ceramic vases in a reflection on her long-term struggle with misdiagnosed and untreated tick-borne infection and mold illness.

Creating visual representations of her heart, lungs, and gut covered in ticks, infectious bacteria, intracellular parasites, and mold, is a cathartic process through which she hopes to make visible what is often an invisible illness.

Bandages on the vases signify hope and the potential for healing. The paintings depict pain in the body as well as stress, grief, isolation, and the need for hope and self-reliance in the face of debilitating chronic illness.

Prominent brushstrokes imply visual static and vision distortions, common complications of Lyme disease and mold illness.

For Your Convenience is currently on display in a window on Thomas St between Boren Ave N and Terry Ave N in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle, through the Shunpike Storefronts program.

It will be on display through August 4. Emily hopes that her work can help others experiencing environmental illness feel related to and provide a window into the experience for those who have not been personally impacted by these epidemics.

See more of her work at her website: emilybromberg.com. Her Instagram handle is @emily.bromberg .

TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, President of LymeDisease.org. She is co-author of Finding Resilience: A Teen’s Journey Through Lyme Disease and of When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent’s Survival Guide. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org.