Idea No. 56: Art from the Hospital

the idea: research and write a book about artists who found art while being ill

This idea has been swinging around in my head for a while.  Through my art history classes, my own art research, and what I’ve found out through teaching, I’ve heard a lot of stories about artists who found their art while being ill.

In the general course of things, many people don’t take the time to even try art.  But when you’re laid up in bed for months at a time, unable to exercise, your energy lets itself out in a new way.  Faith Ringgold, who had a chance to make art very young because severe asthma kept her away from school.  Chuck Close was already an artist but completely reinvented his art after a blood clot in his spinal cord left him a quadriplegic.

The strongest example, and the first one to really inspire this idea, was Frida Kahlo.  I did a report on her for an eigth grade spanish class and have never forgotten her story.  She was in a bus crash when one of the hand rails went straight through her torso.  Miraculously, she survived and even healed enough to walk again.  However, for months she was in bed in a full torso cast so she could barely move.

She began by decorating the cast itself.  Once that was full her father rigged a series of mirrors above her bed so that Frida could look at herself.  And thus began her famous self-portraits.

My work at Mass General Hospital, Children’s Hospital, and Dana Farber for the MFA has given a new depth to this idea.  The hope is that children would feel inspired to see that a plethora of great artists started their journey not in art school but in a hospital bed.

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