Laura Garrett knows first-hand the importance of advocating for her health. For months after a bout with COVID-19 in August 2022, she didn’t feel quite right. “Everyone I talked to kept telling me it was just long COVID and that I was overreacting.

Some art is too direct and powerful to be painted with brushes. Cecilia Farrell, a painter who works predominantly in acrylics, prefers to use sharp edges: credit cards and razor blades.

Jim Abbatoy could not figure out what was going on. He and his wife Barb were in Florida in May 2022, a normal vacation for them, when he started feeling very sick overnight. In the morning, he felt fine.