Cardon Sullivan

Framed in Faith (2025)
Oil on Canvas
By Cardon Sullivan
This painting is about my mom and the hard battle and trails she’s been through after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. I chose to paint her from a dramatic .5 photo of just her eyes because I feel like they say everything that she’s been through. her sadness, her pain, but also how strong she is. Her glasses frame the piece, and on a deeper meaning they’ve framed her experience. They also distort the background behind her to symbolize how everything felt blurry and confusing when it all first happened.The background is a mix of hospital equipment and green tones inspired by the scrubs doctors wear. It’s blurry to show how out of focus life felt at the time. As my mom was rushed to the hospital it felt like everything was happening too fast and at the same time too slow. At this time our lives were filled with anxiety, and although I was young we didn’t know what was going to happen. Years have gone by with little help from the treatment she was on. She was given an opportunity to get a new treatment that was risky but in our eyes we had hope. Her treatment gave her only a one-in-three chance of surviving. She had to use a wheelchair for a while and told my dad he should grab the kids and go because she felt like too much of a burden. But he didn’t. He stayed, and that has always stuck with me.I named this piece Framed in Faith as it has more than one meaning. First, you’ll notice the glasses literally frame her face but more than that, her entire experience was framed by her faith. It was what held her together. Even when her body was weak, her belief in God gave her strength. Her faith didn’t erase the pain, but it gave it a purpose and helped her keep going. I wanted to show that she was never just defined by the diagnosis, but by how she faced it.