Hi @chaun2947 Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. While we’re backed by Mayo Clinic we are a community forum comprised of members such as yourself who “connect” with each other to help find answers, offer suggestions, and encouragement.

May I ask what brought you to Connect?
The group you popped into (What’s outside your picture window today?) is a fun one! With a pretty regular cast of characters…LOL. I say that fondly because we all become like family here.

I’m sorry to hear you have back issues. That really puts a damper on normally fun activities. I can empathize with you! Neck and shoulder spasms have sidelined me in the past from working on my art projects. Maybe this would help you…keeping it small.

When recovering from my bone marrow transplant, I had to live in Rochester for almost 4 months and had no access to my studio at home. So I’d brought a bag of art supplies with me; Small pads of watercolor 5x7 paper, a small container of half pans of color and water brushes instead of my brush collection. Fatigue was my friend so, sitting at a desk or table just wasn’t doable. But I could easily hold the small pad on my lap, sketch or paint with little effort. The waterbrushes are great because there’s no reaching to dip. Another item I brought were watercolor pencils! They’re great! You sketch with those, fill in with the color and then use the water brush to allow the pigment to flow!

I know we have a lot of artists in this forum and an art group too! Here’s the link.
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/art-for-healing/

https://connect.mayoclinic.org/get-started-on-connect/
I hope you’ll share your story with us. You never know how your journey might help someone else. Wishing you all the best, Lori.