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Dear Ethanol

Work in Progress

Dear Ethanol

Work in Progress

Work in Progress

Tiny beautiful truths.

Confessional to the bitter taste of alcohol.

“Day 7 with sunlight and birdsong... a week ago it was a desperate thirst and desire for self-harm.” —Confession of Another. Day 7. #wedorecover #dearethanol #timybeautifultruths

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Dear Ethanol is a confessional.
Working wi

“It was bound to happen, the guilt & disappointment of a dream. It was white wine. It tasted shitty, and I felt tipsy and really didn’t like it but I wasn’t sufficiently annoyed with myself to stop. Relieved and happy to wake

Well, I had to draw the line somewhere. I painted this on the wall of my Brooklyn loft, on the Williamsburg waterfront, overlooking the city, at 3am after a booze fueled party, one of many I threw for my neighbors. Many, like me, had escaped the &ls

“I’ve been listless. The euphoria of earlier days seems to have left me in its dust but I think it’s actually my addict brain confusing peace with boredom.” — Confession of Another. Day 50.

// This confession of a fri

“I’m a new soul, I came to this strange land, hoping I can learn a bit ‘bout how to give and take.” —lyric, ‘New Soul’ by Yael Naim

// Early sobriety often felt like I was an alien species, landed on an unf

“I felt like an alien, turning away from everything I knew on planet drink in search of a new sober reality. I was terrified. This fear pushed me back to planet drink a fair few times. In fact, it took 18 months of running back to planet drink

“People would say ‘oh you’re not that bad’ but the point is, if you see a fire starting you put it out. You don’t wait till it burns everything to the ground.” —Confession of Another. Day 236

// I was hig

“We think it is the aloneness we fear, but I believe what we actually fear is not having a home within ourselves. For so long, I did not trust my own landscape. I had believed the stories I learned about it, and I had taken every chance to avoi

“I tried to drown my sorrows but the bastards learned how to swim and now I am overwhelmed by this decent and good feeling.” —Frida Kahlo

// Taking inspiration today from Frida Kahlo, whom life was not kind to. She endured polio,

“That I’d start to grieve, a little bit less, but still so, who I was, wild and free (but also drunk, depressed and angry), and here I am today, fantasizing about how sensational it was, forcing myself to recognize how much pain is still

“I will be reborn in my own chaos.” —Confession of Another. Day 56

//“I find me, leave me, go towards me, come from me, nothing ever but me, a particle of me, retrieved, lost, gone astray, I’m all these words, all thes

“There is nothing easy about realizing you are the only one that’s been holding you back.” —Confession of Another, Day Zero

//“This is the singular, hard truth I come up against every day: I am the only one responsible

“One stranger who understands your experience exactly will do for you what hundreds of close friends and family who don’t understand cannot.” —Laura McKowen

// Today’s post is a nod to the women leading the way in norm

International Women’s Day. Statistics confirm what most of us on a path to sobriety already know. More women are drinking and women are drinking more. Much more. The pace of life for most women is punishing. Juggling careers, family while str

“So happy to be able to be present and to enjoy this properly, not locked in that cage I built myself”. —Confession of Another. Day 198.

//“The misery you feel when trying to abstain is actually caused by drinking. Further

“87 days. Wow. I can’t believe I haven’t found a way to sabotage myself.
Finally starting to feel good again. Now my drinking brain is trying to convince me I can quit anytime.” — Confession of Another. Day 87.

//The

“This is one more piece of advice I have for you: don't get impatient. Even if things are so tangled up you can't do anything, don't get desperate or blow a fuse and start yanking on one particular thread before it's ready to come undone. You h

Threads. Beyond textiles, the word conjures up the tapestry of life, the invisible threads connecting us, and, for many questioning their use of alcohol... the unraveling, the hanging on by a thread. Consider this quote by the great Spanish painter

“Displace the pain. Put it in a camera, a story, a poem, a song, a lover, a canvas.” —Unknown

#artfortheheart #dearethanol #tinybeautifultruths

*****
Dear Ethanol is a confessional.
Working with miniatures, I imagine and creat

“You’re in the business of breaking generational curses. You’re who your bloodline has been waiting for. Don’t give up. You’re almost there. Don’t get tired. You’re geared for this.” —Unknown

BTS 1.jpg — Minuscule characters. Monumental truths.

This is a confessional.
In Dear Ethanol, Kerry Payne Stailey creates a world inspired by true accounts of a life altered by alcohol. Hers included.
Her muses offer wisdom, honesty and courage, sharing tiny beautiful truths as they resurrect their lives, alcohol-free.
Working with miniatures, Kerry reimagines and illustrates their confessions, and hers.
One image a day. One day at a time.

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