JIA & ME Art Competition in Oxford (14 Nov)03 December 2015One of the great things that we at ‘JIA at NRAS’ like to offer is the opportunity for young people with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis to express their feelings through art. For 2015, JIA at NRAS planned three events across UK called JIA & Me Art Competitions that aimed to bring young people with JIA, as well as their friends and family together for a day of fun and creativity. The first JIA & Me Art Competition of 2015 was held in Oxford on 14 November and it turned out to be a great success. Photos from the event can be found on our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/jiaatnras/posts/1059862930712798 All contestants participating in the competition were asked to depict their response to their condition through their artwork. One of our esteemed judges Jora, a talented artist, had the tough job of deciding which artwork she thought was most impressive. Here’s what she had to say: A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of judging some excellent art by children living with Ideopathic Juvenile Arthritis. This took place at the Nuffield Hospital in Oxford, and was organised (superbly) by Anne Gilbert of NRAS. It’s hard to do a lot of things with RA. One of the hardest was judging the paintings! They were all asked to depict their response to their condition. Winning pictures included a wonderful dolphin representing a nurse communicating with a teddy bear (the painter/patient). There was also a very finely executed abstract 3D work representing the spikes and tangles of arthritic pain, and a interestingly ambiguous painting of a girl standing in water, with her back turned to the viewer. I wasn’t asked to name a Best in Show, but if I had it would have been this work by 10 year old Ariane. I love the way she has the clinical stuff like blood tests and scans in the background, and in front of this a joyous figure celebrating remission.