Hansel & Gretel in the Bayou

Two shows opening this week!

My sketches from this summer are being shown at the Viterbo 2011 Exhibition, opening tonight in the Carol Scholsberg Alumni Gallery at Montserrat College of Art, and my latest children's book pieces will open a week from tomorrow in "Illumination: the 10th Annual Advanced Projects Juried Exhibition" here at RISD. Excited and grateful!

Drawing in Italy this month

Map of Comprehension

Concepts homework 4/28/11: responding to the word "communication" with a chalkboard. And math!

Cultivating Identity

Accidentally a self portrait. (Both of them.)

Make It Better

As keynote speaker Dr. Howard Koh pointed out, art and design have the power to humanize public health concerns: to make them "real, understandable, and felt."
I am grateful to have been a part of this symposium. Thank you everyone involved for your work!

Article on the conference from risd.edu here.

Below is the full (hourlong!) panel presentation, "Healthcare in the Studio," which showcased how RISD art teachers and classes create healthcare-relevant work. My teacher Lindsay Kinkade presents our class at 40:00.

Making It Understandable

The posts below represent my work from the Wintersession class Making It Understandable, January 5th to February 10th, taught by the fabulous and affirming Lindsay Kinkade. The class aimed to make public engagement projects to help explain and raise awareness about the Affordable Care Act. For my final I chose to actually advocate the reform.

Called "Advocacy: Healthcare as Luxury," my project involves two posters which utilize jewelry I made out of medical supplies. Each poster points out something wrong or unfair about the healthcare system as it is now. But as a whole they imply, through the “jewelry,” that as long as healthcare is private it is also a commodity: a luxury. I mean to call that very principle into question, as well as reach out to the college-aged demographic to which I belong; those who are probably not underprivileged, but who most likely are subject to poverty of information regarding healthcare in America.

The two posters represent a prototype for what would ideally be a much larger (and funded) public awareness campaign. A total of about ten different posters would be made and mass-produced to live on college campuses, online, in local news sources, and public transportation sites such as bus shelters.



Ideally, if this project was funded and circulated, I would aim to make my additional posters with higher quality jewelry--that is, jewelry cast in precious metals and set with precious stones (rather than 24 kt gold plating and swarovski crystals).  Had I the time and resources I would like to make images intended to appear in magazines and billboards as well.

Each of my posters points to http://makingitunderstandable.tumblr.com, which was collectively authored by everyone in the class. As well as displaying classwork, it has a wealth of healthcare reform information, data sets, existing infographics having to do with healthcare, and links to interesting designs/designers/ideas. I think it particularly showcases the rich opportunity for design and current events to marry.

My research, much of which was posted to the blog, was aided by several experts, including the office of Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Roberts, and Felice Freyer, the Providence Journal's medical reporter. To the last two ladies I mentioned, who visited our class and offered incredibly helpful feedback, thank you so much!

Student work from this class will be showcased at Make It Better, a symposium on art, design and the future of healthcare, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Pioneer Portfolio, on March 11 and 12. This conference will bring leading artists, designers and activists together with health professionals, policy-makers, entrepreneurs and members of the RISD community to frame an expand role for art and design in health innovation and change.

I am excited that with my project I responded to my own artistic interests as much as to a relevant social issue, and am equally excited by the opportunity of this conference.

Class photos are courtesy of Lindsay, and are found here.
List of my citations after the jump.

Making It Understandable Final Class Critique

Advocacy: Healthcare as Luxury
finished 2/10/11

 

Advocacy Poster 2

The small text reads:

                                     "One finger X-ray can cost $50-$200, even if insured."

                                     "Prescription drugs are not covered by Original Medicare."

                                     "10% of Rhode Island is asthmatic. 16% is uninsured.

                                      Inhalers are prescription-only."

                                     "A trip to the ER to treat a broken wrist is painful, but it is a luxury."

Advocacy Poster 1

In 2010, 84% of Rhode Islanders had health insurance, most having gotten covered through their jobs, but 32.8% having gotten covered through individual plans, parents' plans, or spouse's plans.

Medical Supplies as Jewelry

Props for my healthcare posters. Made with Swarovski crystals, rabbit fur, antique lace, and 24k white and yellow gold leaf.