How Botox has saved my career
IT is considered a must-have beauty treatment for celebrities trying to defy the ravages of time.
But now Botox is also playing a surprising role – in the world of contemporary art.
For one of Scotland’s most famous and successful painters has revealed that he is receiving regular injections of the treatment – to help him complete works ahead of a major new exhibition.
However, unlike the celebs who have Botox – botulinum neurotoxin that can be deadly and causes paralysis – injected into their foreheads to smooth away wrinkles, artist Peter Howson is having it administered in his wrist.
The 58-year-old, whose work is sought after by collectors worldwide, feared he might have early stage Parkinson’s Disease when his right hand – the one he paints with – suddenly developed tremors which made it difficult to hold brushes.
The artist, who made his name with brutal depictions of Glasgow down-and-outs and hardmen, has now been diagnosed with a form of ‘dystonic tremor’, a condition which affects an estimated 70,000 people in the UK.
There’s no cure for the disorder but minute doses of Botox help ease the symptoms when injected directly into the spasming muscles to block nerve transmissions.
Speaking for the first time yesterday about his surprise setback, Howson told The Scottish Mail on Sunday: ‘It’s been a bit worrying but I’m trying to make the best of it. One of the things I’ve had to do is change the way I hold my paint brush and write.
‘Ironically, I have a complete aversion to all kinds of cosmetic treatments and surgery so it’s quite funny that I’ve had to turn to Botox injections in my wrist to allow me to continue my work. ‘At least my hand is looking good!’ The artist, who lives in Glasgow, admitted he had been working 20hour days for months as he prepares a series of large-scale canvases and smaller panels for his five-weeklong Prophecy exhibition in New York which opens on May 3.
The final pieces – which include a huge oil on canvas that lends its name to the show – will be shipped off to the US next month.
Howson added: ‘Lack of sleep and long hours when I’m working for an exhibition are nothing new. It goes hand in hand. But this was suddenly something different and the tremors and cramping in my right hand were making it increasingly difficult to write and to hold a brush.
‘I’d be working on an intricate part of a painting, like an eye, and the brush would slip and cause a streak. I thought at first it might be Parkinson’s, and, of course, I’m relieved it isn’t. But it was a worry for a while and I knew I needed to get to the bottom of it.’
Howson had hospital tests, including an MRI scan, late last year but the results came back clear, and doctors concluded it was a form of dystonia, or extreme writer’s cramp. They have now prescribed regular injections of Botox on the NHS and, so far, it appears to be working.
A specialist using an ultrasound machine pinpoints the affected muscles in the artist’s wrist before injecting the botulinum toxin into the area worst hit by the spasms.
‘The Botox has really helped,’ said Howson. ‘It has been a relief to get a diagnosis and get back to some sort of normality but the injections every three months are very sore.’
Howson, who was made an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2009, was the official war artist – commissioned by the Imperial War Museum – in the 1992-1995 Bosnian civil war.
He has been treated for drink and drug addiction and depression in the past and was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome nine years ago.
Today, he is one of the world’s most celebrated living artists, and his work hangs on the walls of galleries and museums and in the homes of actors, such as Jack Nicholson, and rock stars, including Madonna and the late David Bowie, who struck up a friendship with him after buying two of his paintings depicting the Bosnian conflict.
The New York exhibition runs at the Flowers Gallery from May 3 until June 10.