From Darkness into the Light

Content Note: This article shares one person’s personal testimony involving medical challenges, pain, faith, and healing. It is not intended as medical advice. Please consult a qualified medical professional regarding your own health, treatment, or medication decisions.

I am a self-taught, disabled, award-winning artist and illustrator. Today, I consider myself an inspirational artist who has survived many difficult and life-threatening seasons. My story is about hardship, miracles, art, and faith.

Artist Carina Imbrogno

I was born with a rare genetic disorder called Marfanoid Habitus and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which was diagnosed in 2015. I truly believe I am a walking miracle. My spine collapsed in 2005, and I had to undergo another life-saving surgery. I now have 28 titanium screws and two titanium rods holding my spine. I have survived two pulmonary embolisms and have had many life-saving surgeries throughout my life. I also struggle with learning disabilities.

Before my spiritual awakening, I was angry with God. I had endured multiple surgeries, struggled through school, and felt lost without direction or purpose. I did not know where I belonged.

Then, in 2014, I discovered my ability to create art, and everything began to shift. Art became my therapy, my anchor, and my reason to keep fighting. After facing death so many times, I had often wanted to give up. But when I started creating in 2015, at the age of 40, I finally found purpose.

Slowly, piece by piece, I began to heal.

Spirituality transformed my life. I now carry a deeper self-awareness, stronger emotional resilience, and genuine empathy for others. My focus shifted away from chasing approval and feeding my ego toward finding inner peace. I have learned to release anxiety, accept life’s uncertainties, and live with purpose, connected to something far greater than myself.

Healing was not what I thought it would be. I wanted God to simply fix the problem so I could move on. Instead, He went deeper. He worked on my heart. The surgeries hurt. The waiting was long. But in that space, He taught me patience I did not have. He showed me how to stop relying on my own understanding and start relying on His grace. He gave me peace when there were no answers yet.

Carina's beautiful artwork can be found at https://caimbrogno.wixsite.com/mysite

I began painting and drawing in a realistic style. I was inspired to become an artist by the child prodigy Akiane Kramarik, who began painting at age 4. At eight years old, she painted what has become one of the most recognized images of Jesus, “The Prince of Peace.” I discovered her when I watched the movie Heaven Is for Real in 2014. Her story and the image of Jesus truly woke up the artist in me and inspired me to keep fighting for my life.

I was fortunate to meet Akiane Kramarik and view the painting in person. Standing in front of “The Prince of Peace” was a powerful moment in my spiritual journey. In that moment, I asked God to help me continue to heal, grow, and become who He created me to be.

Even through physical pain, medical challenges, and difficult seasons, I have continued to create art. To me, that is a miracle I once thought would be impossible.

I enjoy depicting everything I find beautiful, including people, children, pets, wildlife, landscapes, nature, still life, and botanicals. I do not enjoy depicting everything I went through. I want people to feel peace and happiness when they look at my work, not pain. I want my work to shed light in the world, not darkness.

Because my condition prevented me from ever having children, I am especially inspired to depict children in my art. I am also deeply inspired by the old masters. My greatest hope is that when someone sees my work, they feel a moment of peace. If even one brushstroke brings someone happiness, a breath of calm, or a reminder that beauty still exists, then I have done what I set out to do.

I enjoy working with many different mediums, including pastels, graphite, charcoal, gouache, watercolor, acrylics, and oils. Since beginning my art journey in 2015, I have created more than 150 works of art. For the past two years, I have been teaching myself to paint with acrylics and creating hyperrealistic paintings.

I began exhibiting my artwork in local galleries and online in 2017. My work has been accepted into more than 400 local, online, and international exhibits, and I have received 370 awards so far. My work has been featured in 18 magazines. I also became one of the winners of the EveryLife Rare Disease Art Competition on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., in 2022.

Faith did not just get me through it. Faith remade me. When my body failed, spirituality gave me the resilience I did not have. It took my suffering and gave it meaning. When I could not do everything for myself, it connected me to a God who was still in control.

I believe God is keeping me alive so I can share my miraculous story with the world, inspire others, and give them a renewed sense of hope. I hope my story encourages someone to pick up a brush, start drawing, begin painting, or simply find a way to create light from a painful place.

If you are in your own season of surgery, waiting, or wondering where God is, you do not have to be okay yet. Healing taught me to trade demands for grace. Look for tiny lights, one moment of peace, one kind word, one brushstroke. Create, even if it is messy. And remember, you do not walk alone. Reach out to your doctors, a counselor, a pastor, or a safe friend. Your pain is real, but so is hope. Your story is not over.

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Carina Imbrogno is an artist and survivor who discovered healing through creativity after multiple life-saving surgeries. Her work explores faith, resilience, and hope. Carina creates to remind others they are not alone. Her art has been recognized internationally, but her greatest joy is using it to bring light to others. View Carina's art gallery at https://caimbrogno.wixsite.com/mysite