Moya Moya 1999 Oil on Linen 450 x 750mm $950
Moya Moya the disease
Moya Moya is a medical syndrome that affects the major arteries of the brain. Over time the arteries thin and close off causing strokes and multiple disabilities. It is diagnosed by an angiogram image of the blood vessels and the cloud of smoke like capillaries that form around the blockage. Moya Moya is Japanese for puff of smoke. It is a very rare disorder affecting less than one in a million. My son presented with Moya Moya at 7 months old. It has been a long journey but now he is completely healed. Feel free to contact me if this syndrome affect someone in your life. It can be a lonely and frightening journey when you experience a condition that is so rare.
Moya Moya the painting.
This tree is an enigma. Is the deformed branch, root or branch? While it enters the bank and must underground provide roots, it is tapered the wrong way and from the U bend acts and looks like a trunk. This is typical of the shapes of a deformed artery in an angiogram. More than this one of the surgeries they perform to reduce the impact of Moya Moya is to lay the side of an artery down onto the exposed brain tissue and let the artery trunk sprout roots. They did this for my son. I have also seen this happen with fallen trees where lacking nourishment from the original roots they sprout new roots from the main trunk. This is the secret – the Moya Moya brain lacks nourishment so creatively finds ways around the situation, so does a tree.
How rich and marvelous a world we live in, if only we would understand.