Thursday, January 22, 2026

Scintillating

A week or so ago I experienced a scintillating scotoma during an ocular migraine (which thankfully did not include any pain or headache). Wanting to document the experience in stitch, I began by searching through Hazel’s Instagram posts, as I recalled her having painted and stitched geometric forms that looked  remarkably similar to my experience. I had to dig pretty far back to find this …




Close, but not exactly, so I kept digging until I found this in 2018 …




And yes, that bit above the left side of the roof looked just about right. So I grabbed some Deb threads and free-hand stitched some zigzaggy triangles of light that recalled how my experience began …




But no, that wasn't quite right ... so after looking at it for a couple of days, I tried again ...

 

 


Better, but still not quite right. Honestly, it defies description to explain how tiny shards of light grow into shimmering fields … although some medical journal reportage comes close. I can’t say I look forward to experiencing it all again, but neither do I dread it. Then I can try again to capture it in stitch.

2 comments:

  1. Yikes. How weird and scary! Dee

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fascinating and curious to one who thankfully has never experienced a migraine. My husband's descriptions of the "light shows" (that go along with the often debilitating pain) sound exotic.

    ReplyDelete

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