Journal of Illustration - Volume 7, Issue 1-2, 2020

Medical illustrators work within and around life’s unclear coordinates and are hired to pay attention to these dissonant voices. We work with the sick, dying and dead on a daily basis – from the patient whose life-threatening condition you are drawing, to the cadaver on the dissection table that you have spent months examining during your student training. The 100-year-old specimen in a jar that you paint with delicate layer upon layer of watercolour (building over the hours the full complexity of a painted pathology so that medics can better identify the disease), that act of drawing, that attempted embodied cartography has an impact on your mental health. How could it not? It is difficult to draw sickness; it is difficult to be confronted with one’s own mortality so regularly. The act of making such work for a living has implications on the mind and mental health of the medical artist, in addition to their ability to draw the anatomy of emotions. I do not think we talk about it enough within our profession, least of all draw it. This article attempts to explore mostly uncharted and choppy waters within biomedical visualization – the art of drawing the whole holistic self. It suggests a new paradigm for medical illustrators to work within – one of radical compassion for what it means to have a body, to live within the brilliant complexity of that body and to draw it through all its states of experience.

This article explores the possibilities of a psychoanalytic approach to illustration; asking whether an illustration practice can be developed that draws on influences from psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice. The author uses research with a group of participants to explore how psychoanalysis can illuminate or problematize the illustrator’s encounter with a text, looking into the ways psychoanalysis works to trouble straightforward narratives, and asking how an illustrator may use a psychoanalytic approach to take up a more subversive position in their work. A central interest in this research was to challenge the conventionally subservient relationship that illustrations have to texts. When this relationship breaks down, tensions emerge, especially when the material being illustrated resists having meaning-making structures imposed on it, or when the illustration does not illuminate the text. This research uses illustration practice to explore what is hidden but runs through the stories we tell: what our unconscious might be offering us, through our dreams, or through our choice of words, that cannot be known at face value. The research uses content from participant interviews about dreams and personal mythology as the basis for the creation of illustrations that take on a life of their own and trouble the original interview narrative, created through a practice that is informed by psychoanalytic approaches. The article also explores the influence of image–text relationships within the exhibition space, suggesting that illustration could make use of display formats that engage with and challenge the meaning-making dynamics embedded within this space.

With reference to an ongoing practice-based project, illustration in this article is considered for its capacity as an authorial practice able to complement and communicate ideas emanating from academic research. This article discusses the phenomenon of ‘place’, specifically, place as a lived concrete site comprising both physical and emotional phenomena and culminating in a meaningful experience of ‘being-in-the-world’. With particular reference to more marginal settings of everyday public experience, this article argues that as a result of current cultural phenomena relating to the economic and practical necessities of daily action, and historical developments in western thinking, place is an idea that is commonly obscured from daily experience. Through the teachings of phenomenology and early German romanticism, this article explores ideas that, through visual representation, meaningful notions of place can be resuscitated and transmitted between the illustrator and viewer. Further, through discussion of ideas emerging from postmodernism, conditions that affect our experience and expectations of place in the present are also addressed. Whilst place as a lived and meaningful totality is invariably informed by structures of subjectivity, visual representation is considered here, for its usefulness in appealing to meaningful, poetic dimensions of wider human experience.

The act of drawing is still an underestimated, powerful and simple means of expression for adults. It represents an odd, unconventional and hence exceptional channel to self-awareness. This article is a phenomenological study of the author’s path from sketching to an emerging visual narrative about a prolonged period of unsuccessful attempts at conceiving a child. The emotional states that arose and the transitions that occurred during this period are discussed through the prism of matrescence, a transitional period to motherhood. It starts with a conscious decision to have a child. Through the biology and by means of drawing and illustration, the author explores the inner workings of the mind, decodes visual metaphors and symbols, and explores emotional and menstrual cycles of conceiving and losing, searching for lost connections to the body and processes within. Motives of walking, going through and cycling recur in the sketches and drawings. The cycling also appears through the metaphor of tides on the seashore. The fjord – the sea as the origin of life in a biological sense – becomes a place for emotional transformation. In this article, emotional landscapes hold a special place as a helpful tool for working with emotions and developing the story. The initial sketches are examined along with the text of the diary. The phenomenon of disconnection is discussed in a social context to reveal how it is shown in the illustrations. Finally, the egg becomes a strong visual trigger and a link between biology and art, and a character in the narrative.

The aim of the present article is to examine the therapeutic potential of autobiographical graphic novels in the context of the theory of art as psychic reparation. The starting point for such analysis is Stefano Ferrari’s research on writing as reparation and Duccio Demetrio’s work on autobiographical creativity. By examining three well-known and influential autobiographical graphic novels by Art Spiegelman, David B. and Justin Green, it aims to highlight some of the mechanisms of autobiographical narrative specific to the long-form comics format and the role they play in the elaboration of psychic traumas.

The Spirit of Vaslav Nijinsky is a short comic created in 2016, telling the story of the famed ballet star who, in 1919, suffered a mental breakdown that resulted in a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Before his breakdown, Vaslav Nijinsky was known as ‘The God of Dance’, and regarded as the greatest male ballet star of his generation. His success as a ballet dancer paired with the details of his later life often associates him with the stereotype of a genius artist succumbing to madness. The nature of live art means the majority of Nijinsky’s work no longer survives intact, with only snippets of static documentation and ephemera left in the wake of performances hinting at his genius. However, in the lead up to his diagnosis, Nijinsky left two concrete bodies of work that are now regarded as important in the field of mental health history. First are a series of abstract drawings, and second are a collection of notebooks now known as The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky. Both are fascinating documents on the subject of mental illness and served as the main inspiration for the narrative of the comic. The story of Nijinsky’s life and career has become the stuff of legend because of his enigmatic quality as a historical figure. This article explores the ephemera and historical documentation associated with this fascinating yet intangible artist, and how they inspired the content, process and aesthetic of The Spirit of Vaslav Nijinsky.

To self-author means to have the capacity to make coherent and informed decisions based on one’s internal beliefs and to not rely on, or be swayed by, external sources; to trust one’s internal voice and identity. In this article, I look to self-authorship as a framework to enable the illustrator to better understand personal engagement and experience of practice and visual identity through critically informed decision-making based on one’s internal beliefs; using self-authorship as a phenomenological approach to practice, encouraging the exploration of and reflection on the individual facets of process and self with a more reflective and critical eye. Two case studies set the foundation of this article, and in case study one, I reflect on using personal sketchbooks created on a master’s degree and later during a period of great personal distress. As an established illustrator, I explore the way these sketchbooks have revealed the lengthy steps of redefinition of my practice over the past decade or more. Presenting a renewed ‘sense of identity’ for me as practitioner and for the work I create. Case study two is a prelude to the conclusion and sets in place a context for my own self-authorship as a picturebook maker. Building on Fauchon and Gannon’s Manifesto for Illustration Pedagogy, through personal exploration of self-authorship and the role of the sketchbook, this article presents the use and analysis of the sketchbook and mark making as a route to 'visual self-discovery' towards a more authentic picturebook practice.

This article reflects on the use of illustration as a tool in mental health, and attempts to answer the question, can depicting wellness or rawness of mental health experiences in illustration contribute towards recovery? The two authors of this article speak from their experiences from several roles: as illustrators; a disability adviser and mental health practitioner; as teachers and women of colour. They explore their own creative practices through their intersectionality. The first author presents wellness in illustration, the origins of both black illustrators communicating through their work alongside how black people are represented in illustration. This uncovers societal cultural preference, authenticity and overarchingly, the question of who decides our narratives. In exploring rawness, the role of illustrator, and how it connects to others through honest human experiences, the second author questions where this is impacted. The reflection throughout this article encourages true consideration of intersectionality in the creation, engagement and taught aspects of illustration, considering how this communicative instrument can continue to be used to promote wellness. This article proves that illustration can provide a space for recovery in a mental health context, ultimately demonstrating how illustration is used to portray experiences where words cannot, providing a cathartic process for practitioners, and is used as a tool to promote powerful inclusivity.

This is a critical account of a year-long collaboration between MA Authorial Illustration students and service users of a social services organization and mental healthcare provider, The CHAOS Group (Community Helping All Of Society), with the aim of communicating the journey of those experiencing mental health issues and the efficacy of authorial illustration in promoting wellbeing. Central to the project was the production of the book CHAOS: A Co-Creation, and this article describes the book’s development and the experience of working in the co-creation mode. Drawing upon research methods in narrative and authorial illustration, the article explores the potential of authorial illustration to serve as a tool for benefitting mental health: could an illustrational mindset – one rooted within personal authorship – bring out those personal voices, rekindling a sense of worth and self-esteem? At the heart of the project was the concept of shared creative process, a ‘thinking-through-making’ in which weekly creative sessions allowed each of the participants’ individual voices to emerge and feel empowered through a gradual encouragement to author personal stories. Alongside the fostering of individual authorial voices through illustration, the article describes how, through a non-hierarchical co-creation process, we witnessed a collective empowerment. The article draws upon the recent research-based publication Co-Creation (in France) and draws on the notion from social psychology that there seems to be a sense in which narrative, rather than referring to ‘reality’, may in fact create or constitute it, as when ‘fiction’ creates a ‘world’ of its own: empowering each individual to author their own life-story (Jerome Bruner 1991: 1–21).

Run Tomo is a sash relay race with people with dementia and others in their communities. From the North to the South of Japan, people run across the cities meeting others with dementia. Run Tomo actively connects people with dementia across Japan. The project challenges the stigma of dementia, showing what is possible with a diagnosis, both to the participants and the wider communities, making the cities more dementia-friendly and aware. In September and October 2019, Ellie ran with the individuals, inviting them to document their shared experiences by using The Photobook Project model. By selecting themes, participants of Run Tomo took photographs using single-use cameras. Mirroring the movement of the sash, being passed between participants, the cameras captured the smiles, places, movement, weather and challenges they encountered. The project captures the phenomenological experience of place: from the sweaty foreheads, to when hands meet, to the tender moments where people celebrate their athletic achievements. The Photobook Project features in a wider context of Ellie’s research about the role illustration plays in creating new channels of communication, methods of engagement and illumination of narrative for people living with dementia. This article asserts the power of illustration within a socially engaged context, in particular those living with dementia and their carers, making the case for experiential illustration as a tool for empowerment and connection.

Debate about dementia commonly elicits horror and despair. Yet, dementia is a syndrome of many distinct brain disorders. While progression is expected, memory scores are highly variable in dementia. Illustration plays a part by emphasizing the shrivelled brain of advanced Alzheimer’s. Texts typically refer to wasting in the Alzheimer’s brain although it is selective and may be absent in some cases. Scans emphasize the anatomy of dementia rather than its variability and potential for relearning. Zombies have become associated with symptoms of dementia in both scholarly discourse and popular conversation. A combination of these metaphors and the implication of ‘brainless behaviour’ may contribute to the stigma around dementia and ‘malignant practices’ reported among care staff, such as mockery and disparagement, which disempower people with dementia. However, people with dementia can describe their own experience. An increasing number of memoirs, blogs and podcasts explore the subjective experience of living with dementia. Art by people with dementia reveals persistent creativity and may help them to retain a sense of identity and self-worth. My animated documentary, Mute, illustrates the past life of ‘Frank’, a man with advanced dementia. The technique of charcoal reduction, with its subtle residue of past images, is a metaphor for the selective memory loss typical of Alzheimer’s dementia. The theme of animation therapy in mental health and community arts has gained support in recent years. I discuss the scope for co-produced animations by people who have dementia and the skills required by arts health workers in this field.

This article focuses upon the impact of using participant-created visual imagery and poetry to encourage a more comprehensive dialogue of the psychosocial and mental health elements of the experience of chronic pain. It explores six participants’ semi-structured interview dialogues, following two workshops and two weeks of journaling at home using the arts-based methods. Findings of this study suggest that these methods can enhance the awareness of pain-related factors and strengthen the understanding of the connection between influencing and affecting pain factors in daily life. Therapeutically, this process has encouraged positive pain behaviours, such as hope, purpose and appreciation of self, and created a more personal narrative of the reality of daily pain experience. It strengthens the argument for using combinations of arts-based outcomes to create more informative, personal and accessible methods of pain communication.

This article is a practice-led investigation of the current media landscape using print and humour as a means of resisting the barrage of imagery and the noise of contemporary news cycles. I will present a critical reflection on my own works in relation to other artists and commentators of photomontage and modern image culture. Silicon Valley CEOs want us to be connected 24/7, tuned in, switched on and hyper-notified. With screens an everyday essential and being online an imperative, entertaining yet inaccurate content feeds get the most hits and interaction. Negative news sells and divisive issues can hold attention, but in this era of information warfare, the impact on mental health is increasing. An Internet unhindered by national boundaries or regulation has incurred a storm of misinformation that not only divides opinions online but can instigate offline actions that radically change our societies. We could be living through a watershed moment where the technology to create deepfakes derails democracy, or this could be a turning point where scientists and researchers fight back over misrepresentation of their research and the population can assert control over our own content feeds and thoughts.