About Giusiana
Giusiana Prosser is an internationally collected, Seattle area based, multi-media artist whose work is largely inspired by her experiences living life with an incurable illness. Since early childhood she has struggled with multiple rare diseases and chronic illnesses. In 2017, her freshman year of highschool, she was diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, In the following years she received the diagnoses of rare genetic neuromuscular and connective tissue disorders along with multiple comorbid conditions, affecting her heart, muscles, spine, immune and nervous systems and more. All are incurable and lifelong conditions.
Giusiana is a member of over 8 different advocacy organizations, including the NW Rare Disease Coalition, the Periodic Paralysis Association and the Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Association, and is passionate about raising awareness and helping people suffering from these conditions fine the help they so desperately need.
She also founded the Rare Living Foundation, and acts as the CEO and president along with her team of incredible board members to provide resources and education for rare disease patients.
Giusiana was crowned Ms. Wheelchair Northwestern USA and will be representing the Pacific Northwest and championing for rare disease awareness at the national pageant competition for the title of Ms. Wheelchair USA in July of 2025.
She contributed as an illustrator to Zoë Jorna-Jackson’s book, “Graceful Strength: Living Resiliently With Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome”, And currently has several more projects underway.
She is a board member of the Veterans Art Council for the local VFW post, and works closely with them for community events and gallery shows.
Giusiana is a two time champion in Art Battle International, a speed painting tournament, advancing from locals to regionals in early 2024 and again in 2025 for the chance to compete at nationals. She has also painted live for a variety of events, including twice for the Museum of Flight’s annual Seafair weekend outdoor festival-by-the-flight line, with the closest seats in Seattle to the thunder of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels’ takeoffs and landings.
Since becoming disabled and becoming unable to continue her dream job, Giusiana has sought to use her gift for art for emotional healing for herself and to be a visual voice for those who struggle like her. She uses her art as one of her many outlets for advocacy.
Her works are a vivid reflection of her intense emotions; she expertly captures the chaos, fear, and emotion that chronic illness can bring. Her paintings encourage contemplation of reality and the deep emotion that is the human experience, and serve to remind us of the power of our own emotions. Her passion for the use of colors to convey deep meanings and her unique forms seem to give hope that darkness and pain is very real, but that there are brighter days in the midst of the storm. Giusiana's work is not only captivating, but intensely emotional and inspiring.
About Giusiana’s Art
Emotions. Our lives are filled with emotion. Joy, grief, love, disappointment, anger, and more.
A sunny day in the midst of winter can bring joy to our life, a newborn baby’s smile can melt our heart. Deep loss can overcome us with grief and sorrow. It’s all a part of life.
My works are emotionally inspired, I delve into the deep, sometimes moody depths of life. As someone who has experienced and lived with multiple physical, even incurable illnesses, my work is my catharsis. I paint my emotions, and the resulting works are emotional and thought provoking. I leave my works loose enough for the viewer to assign their own personal associations and meanings to them. I aim to bring the emotions that my viewers feel, and put them on canvas. I feel strongly about raising awareness about the reality of living with these illnesses and hope my art provides comfort and a visual voice to those who live with similar conditions to myself. My artwork shows that the deep emotion which is the human experience, both negative and positive, is valid and real, and that there is always beauty in life, even in our darkest moments.
About Giusiana’s Advocacy
I’ve been sick my whole life. For as long as I can remember I have been in pain. But for so many years, I didn’t know what was wrong. I thought I was just slow, lazy, stupid, dramatic or crazy. I remember one time in 1st grade, on the playground during recess, playing with my classmates and wondering why everyone had such an easy time jumping off the playground equipment. It sent horrible shocks of pain up my spine. I thought they were just better at hiding it and I was weak. I didn’t know until I was much older that there were reasons why I was always so sore and sick and tired.
In my freshman year of high school, after a wrist injury, I developed Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. It was the first real name for anything that was wrong, but we didn’t realize that it was just the start, that it was linked to a much more complex and severe web of medical issues. Over the years as I continued to get sicker and be dismissed and ignored by doctors I realized I wasn’t going to get any help unless I fought for it.
When I was 19, after continual worsening and medical neglect, I received the diagnoses of multiple rare diseases, including genetic neuromuscular and connective tissue disorders along with multiple comorbid conditions, affecting every bodily system. My heart, muscles, spine, immune and nervous systems, digestive system and so much more.
One of the hardest things I’ve ever heard was “There’s no cure.” I felt so incredibly alone. Not only did 90% of doctors tell me I was crazy, I was rare with nobody to relate to, and there was no cure.
That loneliness is where my passion for advocacy was born. I wasn’t just creating art, a community, or an organization, I was creating the support system and resources I desperately needed and couldn’t find.
Living with rare diseases means navigating a healthcare system that wasn’t designed with people like us in mind. It means being misdiagnosed, overlooked, and dismissed. It means sitting in waiting rooms, emergency rooms, and specialists' offices trying to explain what you’re feeling to people who may never have heard of your condition, and who often don’t care. It means being exhausted, not just from symptoms, but from fighting every step of the way to be seen, heard, and believed.
I wanted to create a place where people like me, people living with rare diseases and chronic illnesses, could come for resources, connection, understanding, and hope. A place where no one has to feel like they’re going through this journey alone. A place that bridges the gap between patients, providers, caretakers, and advocates. A place where every rare life is valued.
To everyone who has come across me or my work - whether you’ve read a post, listened to my personal podcast, joined an event, or simply stumbled upon my page - I want you to know this: you matter here.
I hope my work makes you feel less alone, whether my art or my advocacy. I hope I can help give you tools, language, and strength when you need it most. I hope I can help providers understand our community better. I hope I can encourage caretakers and loved ones to stand beside us with deeper empathy. I hope I can remind each and every person touched by a rare disease that your voice is powerful, and you deserve to be heard.
We are rare, but we do not have to be invisible. I hope I can bring our community together and into the light of public view.
I won’t ever stop fighting until patients can receive the appropriate testing and care without having to fight for basic human dignity and to be believed.
