Info: Leading South African artist Jonel Scholtz - will feed off painting to stave off anorexia - She says every painting is connected but they all have different meanings. ``My emotions move through my paintings. If someone look at my paintings and experiences an emotion, then I have been successful. I do not want to create a nice, aesthetic picture, but an emotion that entertains the viewer,’’ Scholtz said. The issue of anorexia also features in her works. Scholtz said art saved her life as she has suffered from the terrible effects of anorexia which is a major illness in society. ``Anorexia for me was a masochistic way of punishing myself for not being perfect. Art saved my life. I made a paradigm shift in my head and my focus was shifted towards art, using my energy to create rather than destroy. ``I still feel that anorexia is like, alcoholism; it is something that you can't rid yourself of. Maybe it goes with being a personality always having a dependency/addiction which is always consuming to the extreme and not being able to get the balance. ``I use my paintings as a way of telling myself and the people around me that I am okay and if I fall from grace I am okay as well. I won't give up; that's a sign of weakness. `` You do not set out to paint about anorexia, or what you feel about your body. It just happens and develops. You have no control over it. I paint to stay alive and focused, but just as easily the painting itself can throw me off balance. That’s how volatile emotions of an artist can be.’’ Scholtz recently recorded high prices for the sale of some of her works at the International Art Expo in New York. A Rand Afrikaans graduate, Scholtz has worked as a chemist and has won numerous awards including a first prize in the 1989 Women for Peace and Christie's of London art competition. She lives with her husband Jacques and daughter Dawida on a farm, Welgevonden, in the North West Province.