About the Cover Artist: Heavy Head by Wendy Terry

Wendy Terry brings a personal perspective to her art. A lifelong migraine sufferer—her earliest memories of severe headaches trace back to first grade, where her parents tried to discover the cause of this debilitating issue. After college, Wendy worked as a basic science researcher at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in the Department of Neurology. It was there that Dr. Dean Naritoku first suggested her condition might be migraines.

After years navigating a wide range of treatments, Wendy finally found transformative relief. “Botox changed everything for me,” she shares. “Then, adding a CGRP-receptor antagonist gave me back a version of myself I hadn’t known since I was a young child.”

Wendy turned to painting about a decade ago. She now loves using vivid colors to tell a story, after spending so much time in dark rooms to mitigate the throbbing pain. Her piece Heavy Head—a depiction of a cape buffalo—visually encapsulates the somber weight and unrelenting pressure brought on by headaches. Through this work, Wendy invites viewers into the emotional and physical experience of chronic pain, with a whimsy of colorful birds giving flight to brighter futures.