Gabrielle Kilian Sims has documented the outline of her changing hand by tracing its form with charcoal on paper, often mimicking the position they are placed by X-ray technicians. Over time, the treatment of her hands has evolved from quieter and more harmonious imagery to more expressive and stark realizations.

"My evolution as an artist is from someone constrained by the role of patient, suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, to someone using the experience of illness to make drawings of stark beauty. The shape of my hands becomes a metaphor for the beauty of shapes in the natural word—trees, branches, roots."

"Art is an important part of my identity. It has moved me from a place of restriction to an expansive realm of spiritual and artistic possibility."