Representing Diabetes with Art: Sculpting Ms Excess

Art sculpted by and piece written by Elisa Shaholli with support from the DAC team.

Shown above is a clay, hand sculpted art piece titled ‘Ms Excess,’ meant to represent diabetes through the social model and embracing of a “diabetic aesthetic” where diabetes and beauty can be related, rather than on opposite ends of a binary spectrum

The Disability & Access Collective’s (DAC’s) Art section is a space centered on how artistic endeavors can both represent and showcase aspects of disability identity. During the Spring 2022 semester at the University of Connecticut (UConn), I dipped my toes into the (sometimes messy) world of sculpture and the complicated endeavor of how to visibly provide representation for an otherwise invisible disability (in my case, type one diabetes). Born out of Dr. Brenda Brueggemann’s American Studies: Disability Studies seminar, ‘Ms Excess’ incorporates my own lived reality with type one diabetes, a reality centered on the economic and social implications of having the condition, and one many can relate with.

 After reading Golem Girl by Riva Lehrer, El Deafo by Cece Bell, and The Ride Together by Judy and Paul Karasik during the seminar, I realized how much of an impact both the visual and the text can have when combined together in a narrative, complementing one another and making for a more complex and engaging story. The three aforementioned texts were especially striking in the way that they infused art and disability: Golem Girl includes artwork and portraits done by a female artist with a disability, El Deafo is a graphic novel inspired by the author’s own story of her deafness, and The Ride Together infuses comics periodically as the authors share their story growing up with their brother who has autism. 

Seeing the impact that art could have in a disability story– where the art was able to further explore disability identity and make for a more absorbing and captivating narrative– I wanted to try stepping out of my comfort zone and create an art piece that explored disability identity as well. Having been used to primarily writing academic pieces on disability, I wanted to try exploring an artistic form where the visual can in a way ‘speak for itself.’

 My story of how Ms. Excess came to be started a few years ago. Since the beginning of 2020, I’ve been collecting empty insulin bottles. Each time I’d finish a bottle, it would go in a quilted bag with the others. Initially, my collection arose after witnessing a Game of Thrones Iron Throne made entirely out of insulin bottles and syringes online. It was the first time I ever saw diabetes-inspired art and the transfiguration of tools I always saw as purely medical into a piece quite powerful and mimicking of a symbol so well known throughout American popular culture. To witness a symbol of power (the Iron Throne) made from objects I never previously thought twice about, except for when I had to use them, inspired heightened awareness of the multiplicity of meaning in everyday objects. A syringe at the surface level is just that: a syringe. The symbolism and semiology behind it, however, is created by us as people: weakness, power, healing, and sickness. To each person a different term immediately comes to mind depending on our own experiences and perspectives.

The semiology behind this Iron Throne enabled me to also understand just how powerful art can be for representing disability and forming our conceptions about disability. The Iron Throne piece didn’t portray diabetes as a weakness, but rather the opposite: for this syringe-and-insulin-bottle-infused Iron Throne, having a condition like diabetes was integral to being able to create the piece. That is, not everyone can create it. Even if one wanted to create an exact replica, they would need these specific supplies. But who has syringes and insulin bottles lying around without a relation to diabetes of some sort? The answer is probably a very small population. This piece had incredible metaphorical power in using medical supplies I never thought twice about in order to represent wider themes of power and struggle (the epitome of the Iron Throne and concurrently, crucial themes for diabetes self-management). There was power in the fact that to create an exact replica of this art, you had to have diabetes, a condition similar to it, or a relation to the disability in some way. There was power in being diabetic, or in having an identity where syringes and vials may be a part of your life.

 In my own foray of creating art that could provide space for disability representation, I initially wanted to make my own Iron Throne. However, I had never gotten around to doing so, even as the bottles kept piling up and collecting. In thinking more deeply of what I aimed to create for Brenda’s seminar, I knew I wanted to craft a piece that mimicked this rendition of the Iron Throne– where diabetes was not purely represented as weakness and powerlessness on account of the medical aspects of diabetes itself– and I also wanted the piece to be unique and personal.

For diabetic art that is accessible online– although there is not a slew of it– the pieces that do exist predominantly focus on the medical nature of diabetes, primarily featuring diabetes as a shackling and destructive force on the body. I don’t wish to dismiss that diabetes, regardless of specific type, can affect someone biomedically, leading to complications such as retinopathy, neuropathy, and nephropathy, but diabetes is more than just the medical model and a list of complications that may occur. Being an individual with diabetes is more than someone shackled by their insulin pump tubery:

Pictured above is an image of an insulin pump’s tubes wrapped around a woman’s wrists, similar to the function of handcuffs. The piece was drawn by artist Nora Mokate, a type one diabetic herself (Mokate).

As a result of this medical-model predominance in diabetes imagery, my aim was to stray away from the prevalent artistic representation of “diabetes=medical suffering” and instead create a piece that encapsulated more of the social aspects of diabetes, aspects that so often are overlooked. Additionally, although subjective, I desired to create a piece that was aesthetically ‘beautiful.’ Beauty can of course be convoluted: beauty is entirely up to an individual’s own unique perspective. With that said however, I desired a piece that I considered ‘beautiful,’ with my own interpretation of the term being that I could look at the art once it was completed and feel happy, rather than automatically thinking of every negative aspect of diabetes that is usually discussed in family circles, doctor appointments, or scholarly literature. I didn’t want to look at another art piece and see hands shackled because of an insulin pump (though that piece is quite captivating in its own right).

Following this aim then, I used 13 insulin bottles I’d been collecting to make a piece titled Ms Excess.

Pictured above is Ms Excess, a handmade clay sculpture utilizing Humalog insulin bottles, faux white, blue, and purple flowers, moss, jewels, and yarn in a journey to create diabetes inspired art.

When picking the name, I chose Ms Excess on two accounts. First, when one looks at the sculpture, it feels very much ‘excessive.’ When I finished up the piece and showed it to my brother, for example, he expressed feeling overwhelmed and not knowing where to look first. I wanted this overwhelming, almost busy and crowded nature of the piece to be expressive of the symbolic experience of having diabetes. Diabetes mimics a full time job, except the job doesn’t last from a set “9-5” but is all day long, every single day. One needs to even be their own clock and calendar:

• Every 10 days to switch out a sensor that measures blood glucose readings
• Every 3 days to switch out insulin pump cartridges and tubes to insert more insulin
• Every meal to enter in carbohydrates and insulin dosages
• Every time one goes to bed, to make sure the blood glucose number is safe to avoid ‘dead-in-bed’ (DIB) syndrome that affects 1 in 20 diabetics (Diabetes UK).
• Every time one leaves the house, to make sure the heroic juice box for hypoglycemia or insulin for hyperglycemia are not forgotten

The list can go on for the calendar-like and time-sensitive aspects of diabetes care and routine, making for a busy and crowded day. 

However, beyond the term excess being used to express the encompassing nature diabetes can take within a diabetic’s life, the term is also used to rebel against the surface level perspective many individuals have of diabetes within American society, even though diabetes affects over 11% of the population (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). ‘Excessive’ is a commonly used descriptor for diabetes itself and for the diabetic individual. The aim of this piece is to reclaim the depiction of diabetes as its surface level stereotype, where diabetes tends to equate to personal excess where diabetics are represented as victims of their own doing. Instead, I aimed to delve deeper into the experience of diabetes itself and the multiple layers that affect it. 

In terms of the phrase ‘excess,’ both biomedically and socially, diabetes is considered the ‘disease of excess.’ The phrase ‘excessive’ features repeatedly in common sources for diabetes information such as the Mayo Clinic and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Biomedically, individuals without diabetes usually have blood sugar averaging around 70 to 130 mg/dL (Vieira). With diabetes, the average blood glucose is higher, with the exact average differing based on how well controlled the diabetes is, which is impacted by factors such as food intake, exercise, and access to medication and diabetes education. With diabetes, there is a pendulum of either excessively high blood sugar or excessively low blood sugar, where as a result of the pancreas (the organ that creates the hormone insulin to aid with digestion) not producing insulin at all (type one diabetes) or not producing properly (type two diabetes), blood sugar constantly fluctuates.

Socially as well, diabetes tends to be linked to the stereotype of excessively bad choices and decisions, a phenomenon highlighted through Bianca Frazer and Hannah Walker’s recent book (Un)doing Diabetes: Representation, Disability, Culture, although this is a surface level and at many times misguided belief. For type one diabetes, the disease is incurable. Regardless of choices made, where even if a person eats the healthiest of foods, exercises constantly, and routinely maintains health and wellness, diabetes will still exist in the body. Even with type two diabetes, where the diabetic can eventually no longer need medication and the condition is heavily impacted by behaviors and habits, type two diabetes still is deeply impacted by one’s socioeconomic status. It’s hard to eat healthy, for example, when you can not afford to. It’s hard to make certain healthy decisions too, if you don’t have access to a doctor or to information in your language. 

Through my own 10+ years of having diabetes, I’ve mentored and befriended recently diagnosed diabetics or ‘veteran’ diabetics who needed advice and encouragement in decreasing their blood glucose levels. Many of the individuals I have mentored and befriended have been type two diabetics. Most of the time, it was not necessarily the diabetes itself and the lack of effort that made for the excessively high blood sugars. Rather, it was social conditions that had long-lasting negative impacts. 

• It was the dietitians and nutritionists who would ignore cultural backgrounds, advising to stop eating cultural foods and instead target the expensive substitutes that were out of reach financially. 
• It was the difficulty of affording insulin that seems to always be increasing in price (Lee and Wells). 
• It was having unstable insurance or even no insurance. 
• It was having no time to focus on diabetes care because of unstable and unsafe housing which severely impacted mental health
• It was not speaking English fluently and having no translators at the doctor’s office who provide translation

None of these are because of an individual’s excessive lack of personal control or care to  prioritize their health. None of these reasons point to personal laziness and the caricature of a diabetic sitting on the couch with no care in the world eating a mouthful of junk food (one popular culture seems to enjoy spreading). 

All of the bullet points I mentioned are real stories and are linked to wider socioeconomic pressures that affect people differently in the United States, where those in minority groups such as people of color and/or immigrants are disproportionately affected as related to the structure of the United States healthcare system, among other institutional forces.

What had inspired me for the artistic components of my Ms Excess piece and the composition of it was Greco-Roman art. There are so many historical Greco-Roman art pieces that exhibit disability. Although the disability portrayed in many cases is not purposeful but rather coincidental (sculptures break and thus have missing limbs, for example), so many pieces are in museums, movies, and our wider consciousness, and have disabled bodies. Disability is very common in this art form and inspired me for my own sculpture.

Pictured above is the Venus de Milo, an Greco Roman art piece missing two arms (Nix).

I tried to mimic my own piece after Greco-Roman art, an art form where disability is so prominent, yet people may not necessarily consider it a “disability artwork.” 

For Ms Excess, I used chisels to sculpt clay into a head, and then faux flowers, insulin bottles, (plastic) jewels, and yarn to decorate the piece. The insulin bottles are interspersed throughout the piece, specifically through a wreath, earrings, and a necklace. This was done in an effort to create a bit of a ‘diabetic aesthetic’ (Frazer). Accessories are a prominent part of diabetes care— there are blood glucose monitors, insulin pumps, sensors, transmitters, syringes, alcohol swabs, and more, similar to how these bottles are accessories for this sculpture. The wreath, earrings, and necklace, infused with insulin bottles, are three fashion pieces that amongst people are worn to further one’s beauty. A lovely necklace can make the rest of the outfit stand out even more, for example, and having insulin bottles included in the luxurious accessories of the piece (full of glitzy jewels and blooming flowers) is a reclamation against the viewpoint of the un-aesthetic aspects of diabetes, and some individuals unfortunately associate diabetes itself and the tools associated with being quote “damn ugly and unsexy” (Coburn). 

Pictured above is a popular tweet on #diabetestwitter where someone expressed to the community the “ugly and unsexy” nature of diabetes care. Usernames have been edited out (Coburn).

In Ms Excess, the earrings are the insulin bottles, the wreath can not be disconnected from the vials in it, and in between the jewels of the necklace lay the vials. The insulin bottles are entwined in the beauty accessories, even going so far as being the accessories themselves (the earrings). A necklace or earrings being associated with the ‘dolling up of a look’ in my piece can not be separated from the aspects of diabetes, making for a diabetic aesthetic which combines beauty with diabetes, and rejecting the quote “ugly and unsexy” characterization of diabetes supplies.

Another image of the final project, Ms Excess

I purposely included flowers, moss, and leaves in this piece to reference the theme of nature versus technology throughout diabetes. A natural part of the body, the pancreas is disrupted, and technology, in this piece the biotechnology of man-made, biomedically engineered insulin, is used as treatment. The natural and the technological intertwine, where humans manually insert the technological back into the body in order to function, giving rise to the question of ‘how technological are we?’ that is heightened with the addition of other diabetes accessories such as insulin pumps, echoing the representation of the disabled cyborg (Meyer and Asbrock). However, both the technological and the natural make the whole, complete diabetic. Similarly, the vials and the moss, flowers, and leaves work together to create a wreath and necklace in Ms Excess.

For the eyes in this piece, there is a clock as one eye and a lock and key as the other eye. For the clock, this references the fact that diabetes is a very time centric condition. There is time dedicated towards treatment every day. There’s also a logistical process towards treatment, with times and dates that need to be followed (insulin basal and bolus dosage requirements for certain meals and times, the changing of supplies every few days), and when technology goes wrong or blood sugar swings, time is taken from the diabetic to go towards the diabetes itself. 

With the lock and key, this references the fact that although diabetes is similar to many conditions where it’s a family affair, affecting and including every person in the family circle for the care, treatment, and costs of the condition, diabetes is also a very individual disease. There’s a high level of personal control that constantly goes into treatment: you need to manually change your insulin pump, you need to change your transmitter and sensor, you need to be the authorized user for insurance related concerns, you need to notice how your body feels to determine when the pendulum is swinging a little too high in either direction, you need to disclose diabetes, you need to traverse stereotypes, you need to deal with accommodations, etcetera etcetera etcetera in the long fragment of this list of commands imposed by diabetes. In this way then, you have to be the key to your own lock.

With a closing summary for Ms Excess, she intersperses elements of excess, but this is all done with purpose, rebelling against a surface level viewpoint of diabetes equating to personal excess. Instead, Ms Excess is made in the hopes of reclaiming the image of diabetes away from the “blame and shame” patient, the patient shackled by their own body, and the “damn ugly and unsexy” nature of diabetes. Ms Excess is glitzy, she’s crowded, she’s got a lot going on, but she’s smiling. She’s happy. She’s beautiful. Likewise, maybe diabetes can make the diabetic feel shackled at times– both medically and socially– or exhausted, annoyed, ‘unsexy,’ and tired. But that’s not all that diabetes is. Like other disabilities, and as exhibited in Disability Studies as a field, diabetes and disability also are parts of an overall identity. They are a bodily and out of body experience that doesn’t stop at just the medical. Likewise, Ms Excess isn’t just one idea or theme– she’s excessive, multi-layered, complex, and complicated. She’s ‘human’, just as we all are.

Works Cited

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “National Diabetes Statistics Report | Diabetes.” CDC, 18 January 2022, https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/data/statistics-report/index.html.

Coburn, Morgan. Morgan Coburn, PhD on Twitter: “Ah yes, “damn ugly & unsexy” diabetes ✨💅🏼 PS to my new microglia peeps: I’m a type 1 diabetic PhD student that likes to paint & my Twitter is roughly split 50/50 science & rage tweeting about the price of insulin/diabetes , 2021, https://twitter.com/Morgan_Coburn/status/1453379879387287555.

Diabetes UK. “Dead in Bed Syndrome.” Diabetes UK, January 2022, https://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-complications/dead-in-bed-syndrome.html.

Frazer, Bianca Claire. Diabetic Aesthetic: From Stigmatizing Diabetes to Acknowledging the Lived Experience On Stage.

Frazer, Bianca C., and Heather R. Walker. (Un)doing Diabetes: Representation, Disability, Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, 2021.

Lee, Benita, and Anna Wells. “How Much Does Insulin Cost? Here’s How 28 Brands and Generics Compare.” GoodRx, 26 January 2022, https://www.goodrx.com/healthcare-access/research/how-much-does-insulin-cost-compare-brands.

Mayo Clinic. “Diabetes symptoms: When diabetes symptoms are a concern.” Mayo Clinic, 3 June 2021, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/diabetes/in-depth/diabetes-symptoms/art-20044248.

Meyer, Bertolt, and Frank Asbrock. “Disabled or Cyborg? How Bionics Affect Stereotypes Toward People With Physical Disabilities.” Frontiers, 20 November 2018, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02251/full. Accessed 7 May 2022.

Mokate, Nora. “25 Artists With Diabetes Illustrations.” DesignMantic, https://www.designmantic.com/blog/25-artists-diabetes-illustrations/. Accessed 7 May 2022.

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. “Symptoms & Causes of Diabetes | NIDDK.” National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, 2016, https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overview/symptoms-causes.

Nix, Elizabeth. “What happened to the Venus de Milo’s arms?” What happened to the Venus de Milo’s arms?, 22 June 2015, https://www.history.com/news/what-happened-to-the-venus-de-milos-arms.

Vieira, Ginger. “What are Normal Blood Sugar Levels?” Diabetes Strong, 18 December 2018, https://diabetesstrong.com/what-are-normal-blood-sugar-levels/.Wisse, Brent. “Diabetes Information.” Mount Sinai, https://www.mountsinai.org/health-library/diseases-conditions/diabetes.