DUBAI // As an artist, Elise Vazelakis’s hands are her livelihood.

So when she felt pain, swelling and stiffness in her fingers she dismissed it.

“I am kind of one of those people who work through pain,” she says. “I thought, ‘Oh, I am hurting because I have overdone it’. But then it kept getting worse and worse.

“One morning I woke up and couldn’t open my hands and that is when I thought, ‘OK, red flag. This is not normal’.”

A year ago, after an MRI, X-rays and blood tests, doctors diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis, a condition that attacks the body’s joints.

Ms Vazelakis, renowned for the various art projects across the UAE, said she initially brushed off the diagnosis.

“I was in denial, basically,” she says.

It took time and a second opinion from doctors to finally process what it would mean for her career.

The American artist, who has been living in Dubai for the past three years, creates substantial outdoor installation projects and large-scale paintings.

Her latest is The Gamcha Project, which highlights construction workers and their instrumental role in building the city of Dubai.

Ms Vazelakis, 56, spent the best part of the past year collecting labourers’ colourful headwear, called gamcha, and making beautiful pieces of fabric art from the material, incorporating textiles, photographs of the workers and objects from construction sites.

Her condition mainly affects her smaller joints, those in her hands and feet, and can often make it painful to work. Sudden flare-ups can affect other joints, such as her jaw and her knees.

Any repetitive motion, such as brush strokes, aggravates the systematic auto-immune disorder.

“It has been a process to try and continue,” says the mother of four. “But as an artist it is what I do. It is why I wake up. If I couldn’t do my art it would be hard.”

The diagnosis has forced Ms Vazelakis to rethink her attitude to life.

“It changed things so I would have to sometimes rest, which I am not used to. I am used to driving, though. It has been a lesson in letting go of control.”

Ms Vazelakis says she is living proof of the importance of an early diagnosis.

“I should have gone earlier,” she says. “By the time I went there, the MRI showed erosion. If you catch [rheumatoid arthritis] early, like everything in life, you can actually put it into remission without having permanent damage.

“The medications they have developed now work so much better when you catch it early. I have four children and I would run them to the doctor if they had the sniffles but me, I popped a few Advil.

“We all know when things are not quite right. Don’t ignore. Listen to your body.”

Ms Vazelakis says she has been inspired by the artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who also suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis. He continued to create masterpieces, despite being in constant pain.

“That gave me so much inspiration,” she says. “Back in his day he did not even have aspirin and nothing stopped him. He was taping paintbrushes to his hand in the end to keep on doing what he had to do.

“I thought, ‘I am not going to wallow in self-pity’.”

To those newly diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, Ms Vazelakis advises taking one day at a time.

“There is going to be good days and bad days,” she says. “You have to keep doing what your life and keep on with your life and be positive.”

jbell@thenational.ae