Short Sleeve Day Countdown: The Artist

This is the second volunteer profile as we count down the days until the first national Short Sleeve Day on September 15, 2007. Yesterday was Greg V of Chicagoland.

Today we profile New York artist Gillian Fisher, who created the wonderful artwork that brings to life our Short Sleeve Day message.

Gillian first prepared the logo for the Psoriasis Cure Now Video Contest [deadline for submissions, 9/26 --Ed.]. We had sought a picture of a hand holding a camcorder, but with a twist: the hand should have visible psoriasis. She did a great job on that.

So we sent her an email asking if she would do the central logo for our next campaign. We gave her little direction, simply saying it should be a line of people showing their psoriasis, and be both whimsical and hopeful.

And now we have people as far away as the Netherlands trying to get hold of a Short Sleeve Day t-shirt with her art on it!

Short Sleeve Day -- Saturday, September 15, 2007 -- is designed to educate the general public, but it is also designed to challenge psoriasis patients. Most of us who can, try to keep our psoriasis hidden. Short Sleeve Day turns that notion on its head and says on this day, at least, we will show some psoriasis to the world. It may sound like a trivial thing to those who do not have psoriasis but we have heard from people struggling in the run-up to Short Sleeve Day--they don't know if they can bear to expose their psoriasis publicly. (Our answer is: if you are not ready, wait 'til next year. But use the day to educate some people about the seriousness of psoriasis.)

Gillian's art takes the act of showing one's psoriasis and adds humor and beauty to it. And everyone has their favorite character in that line of psoriasis patients. Who's yours?

Gillian spent a lot of time refining that logo until it was perfect. We hope it inspires you as much as it does us.

And we hope you'll be seeing more of Gillian's work on our website in the future. But don't tell her we said that. We think she needs a rest from us for a while.

Tomorrow: the San Francisco guitarist with a day job.