Creative
At CMEology, creativity may come in the form of innovation, a new idea, or an original spin on a tried-and-true instructional design to improve the effectiveness of our education.
We also use the creative process to include the patient experience in our education. As part of the humanistic curriculum, residents at some medical schools are required to participate in courses designed to help them focus on the human side of being a physician. Integrating medicine and art continues to be an important component of many of our activities, bringing a human element to education by using a visual representation of the patient’s voice.
Here are some examples of inspiring, patient-created art used in our program materials, as well as information about the artists and their illnesses.
About the Artist
Patrick (“Pat”) Mancini has been an art enthusiast and painter for more than 25 years, focusing on fundraising through art for chronic illnesses and rare diseases, and helping various nonprofit organizations and causes. Pat became involved with the New England Hemophilia Association (NEHA) after his son was diagnosed with severe hemophilia in 1998. Soon after, he joined the NEHA board of directors and subsequently assumed the role of Chairman and President in 2002. Since then, advocating and fundraising using art as the means of expression have become an integral part of the overall mission and passion of the organization.
About the Artist
This artist is an award-winning writer,
artist, advocate, teacher, and mother of four children. In 2005, an unexpected, intense desire to create artwork was accompanied by the
advent of bipolar disorder. Her book, Art from Adversity: A Life with Bipolar, an account of her experience with bipolar disorder, was published in March 2013. She is dedicated to raising awareness, challenging stereotypes, and fighting the stigma of mental illness and disability.
About the Artist
A designer, and illustrator living and working with mental illness, including depression, this artist works in a variety of media, including pencil, charcoal, pastel, oil and acrylic, watercolor, ink, and clay. His pieces conjure up fantasy and cartoon characters and creatures, and all manner of robots, vehicles, and machines. He also makes landscapes of urban settings and nature and enjoys drawing portraits of people and animals.
About the Artist
A 38-year-old artist who has traveled from San Diego, to Corpus Christi, and from Maui to Colorado Springs, Colorado, in the effort to find subjects for artistic expression. He attended art school at the Pratt Institute and found painting to be a way to cope with bipolar symptoms. Describing his current work as “abstractions from my training in figure drawing,” he has been influenced by the work of Picasso and de Kooning. He resides in Pueblo, Colorado, where he continues his art studies at Pueblo Community College.
About the Artist
Edvard Munch was believed to suffer from bipolar disorder. Biographers have written that Munch’s moods varied considerably throughout his life, leading to this suspicion. Munch began painting self-portraits as an adolescent, and it is interesting to note that none of these paintings show him smiling. Munch’s The Scream is world renowned, and The Sick Child was painted in his early twenties. Both paintings represent darker periods of his life. The Sun presents a more optimistic feeling, perhaps suggesting an array of symptoms across the bipolar spectrum.
About the Artist
An award-winning writer, artist, advocate, teacher, and mother of four children. In 2005, an unexpected, intense desire to create artwork was accompanied by the advent of bipolar disorder. She was awarded first prize in the Central Coast Mental Health Art Works Exhibition in 2008. Her book Art from Adversity: A Life with Bipolar, an account of her experience with bipolar disorder, was published in March 2013. She is dedicated to raising awareness, challenging stereotypes, and fighting the stigma of mental illness and disability.
About the Artist
A world-renowned artist who uses art to promote recovery for those living with mental health challenges, and a graduate of Georgia State University. In 2004, the Carter Center in Atlanta invited the artist to give a solo art exhibit to an audience that included President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn. Mrs. Carter has purchased two of his works to hang at the Carter Center, and his art donations to the Center have brought as much as $21,000 for a single painting at auction. His designs grace homes and hotels around the world.
About the Artist
This artist was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2002, when she was 55. Three years ago, she became involved with a Delay the Disease program at her local YMCA, which offered an art class. She created this painting at that class. It was her first painting and the beginning of her life as an artist. Within the last 3 years, she has authored several books, learned to play the piano, and spoken in public about her disease. She has embraced her disease and has learned to live well with it.