ADRIENNE'S HIV BLOG – Hivine's Weblog
HIVINE is written by HIV positive women but still with a sense of humour
Home is where the HAART is
Salvador Dali portrait
Mad – I’m spitting feathers as my mum used to say. Life can seem very unfair at times especially if you have HIV. But it can seem doubly unfair if you have HIV and like me are also an artist because as a general rule you have to be dead before you start making any money and how unfair is that?
It was an article in the Guardian today about the sale of a portrait by Salvador Dali that set me off. It brought back the past and the things I try not to think about, like how I contracted HIV and how badly I was treated by my partners family and the Executors of his estate, who after his death were supposed to support me as an artist. If it was up to them, aside from not having the proverbial pot to piss in, I would never paint another picture. Although Salvador Dali very rarely painted portraits he did paint a portrait of my deceased partner Dr Brian Mercer OBE FRS the inventor of Netlon, which I would imagine would also raise a few million if it were to be sold.
Salvador Dalí portrait of Mona Bismarck up for auction at Sotheby’s
Dalí’s ironic painting of famously well-dressed woman portrayed in black rags expected to fetch up to £2m. So why was Mona Williams, wife of a man once considered the richest in America, depicted in art in grim black rags?
“He was having fun, I think,” said Samuel Valette, a surrealist art expert at Sotheby’s.
Sotheby’s estimates the painting is worth about £2m, a conservative valuation given rising prices for surrealist art.
The rare portraits Dali painted were often tongue in cheek. For example when he painted Brian he portrayed him with blue eyes and blond hair looking angelic. My portrait of Brian which I painted shortly before that of Dali portrays him as he really was, dark, controlling and demonic. It is interesting to note that we both placed emphasis on Brian’s hand. It is also interesting to note that my portrait, should it be auctioned, would reach nowhere near two million – unless possibly when I’m dead of course.
The Spider and the Fly by Adrienne Seed
The main art in my life now has an H in it – as in HAART, highly active antiretroviral therapy, which I have to chuck down my neck every night as I bemoan the path that led me here. I also bemoan the fact that everything is covered in bloody Netlon as I rip it off bulbs of garlic and Spanish onions then chuck it in the recycling bin. Brian’s carbon footprint.
Dali once covered his house in Netlon – see photo.
Yes, life and especially art is unfair in the extreme and I should know, I’ve been battling with it all my life – as I now battle with HIV. I should have listened to Oscar Wilde and his famous quote, “All art is quite useless” – or – art is short for Arthur as in Arthur Dick and in retrospect, I should have stayed away from them too!
2012 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 10,000 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 17 years to get that many views.
Last Chance Saloon
Don’t seem to have had much time for blogging recently –
more a case of dogging as looking after two dogs as opposed to one which seems
to have taken priority over everything else. Get up, take dogs out on field so
they can check their pee mail as Caesar famous dog trainer calls it, come back,
wipe mud off underbellies (dogs not us unless it’s really wet and we’ve got
muddy bellies too!) do something useful like housework, or maybe not, decide
what to eat or more importantly if can afford to eat – eating far too expensive
these days. Nod off on sofas as knackered from walking, wiping and worrying! Time
to take dogs out again. Luis and I have finally come up with a system to avoid
tangling of dog leads and subsequent rope burn, which is s a bit like kiting
except on the ground.
“Toma ya,” says Luis when Doody delivers her massive missives
(poo mails) and calls them regalos, which is Spanish for presents. Talking of
regalos it’s that time of year (already) when one is forced into thinking about
buying Christmas presents one really cannot afford. I’ve been trying to order
my mine in advance online on ebay although up to now most of my bids have been
unsuccessful – some bugger always outbids me. I’m not going to get that Luis
anything as he didn’t get me anything for my birthday and I’m still sulking. If
he wants a regalo he’ll have to go out in the garden or on the field and wrap
up one of Doody’s. That’ll teach him.
Some good news when I was checking my pee mails – at
least I think it is although I’m not sure if it applies to me.
‘BBC News: HIV life-expectancy rises in the UK’
Our study shows the longevity of patients
who started antiretroviral therapy with a CD4 count of 200-350 cells/mm3.
(mine was only 21 so I guess that rules me
out!)
Life expectancy for people with HIV in the UK has
increased by 15 years in the past decade, thanks to modern drugs and earlier
treatment, a study suggests. The Terrence Higgins Trust says people at risk
should get tested now. Figures suggest 80,000 people in the UK carry HIV, and
about 25% are unaware they have the infection.
A team led by Dr Margaret May, of the University of
Bristol, looked at the life expectancy of the average 20-year-old starting
treatment with anti-retroviral drugs between 1996-1999 and 2006-2008. During
that time average life expectancy increased from 30 to almost 46 years,
according to the data, reported in the BMJ.
A woman with HIV could expect to live a decade
longer than a man with HIV, perhaps because women are tested for HIV during
pregnancy and are likely to start treatment earlier, the study found. Co-author
Dr Mark Gompels, of North Bristol NHS trust, said: “These results are very
reassuring news for current patients and will be used to counsel those recently
found to be HIV-positive.”
The HIV and sexual health charity Terrence Higgins
Trust said it was good news for people with HIV, their families and friends. Chief
executive Sir Nick Partridge said: “It also demonstrates why it’s so much
better to know if you have HIV. Late diagnosis and late treatment mean an
earlier grave, so if you’ve been at risk for HIV, get tested now. “Of
course, it’s not just length of life that’s important, but quality of life too,
and having HIV can still severely damage your life’s chances.”
Not sure if the counsellor should emphasise that.
Earlier grave? Life’s chances – huh! HIV sure puts
a caybosh on life’s chances; chances of a ‘normal’ life, job, family, not to
mention love. Oh well, at least we’ve got more years in the last chance HIV saloon
- unless they find a cure of course, then chance would be a fine thing.
Girls Aloud!
Happiness is……when you don’t know when one dog stops and another begins! A doggy match made in heaven – but it wasn’t like that at the beginning. I am dog sitting for a few weeks whilst WW (Wonder Webmaster) has a well deserved holiday, after all fair’s fair – he looks after my website and I look after his dog. The only difference being my computer does not growl and snap or follow me round the house at all hours of the day and night, or want to sleep with me – and neither does it pee on the carpet.
But on saying that Pepsi dog is a joy to look after and I think even Lady Doodle would agree.
“Girls, girls!” I find myself shouting all day long, “Calm down will you”
Talk about Girls Aloud – except when they’re Girls Asleep!
They say that two heads are better than one and so are two dogs. I recommend anyone with HIV related ‘head’ problems or HIV related loneliness and lack of love should get a dog – or even two. I will be sorry when Pepsi has to go home, but in the meantime – Happiness is…
