A Journey to Medical Illustration – Part 1

Interview between Siobha Murphy: Interviewer & Celia McCarthy: Medical Artist and Scientific Illustrator

SIOBHA: Hi Celia, would you please introduce yourself and your work?

CELIA: My name is Celia McCarthy. I’m a medical artist or a scientific illustrator. I qualified at the University of Dundee. A little about me is that I started studying general science and thought I would like biology, but I ended up switching to medicinal chemistry. Soon, I realised that I didn’t like the lab as it wasn’t creative enough, and there wasn’t much teamwork.

So, I took a few years to travel and rediscovered my love for illustration. I started drawing the people and scenes around me while travelling. And then, while I was in Australia, I began to focus more on it.

I wanted to find a way of combining my two interests of science and art, and I found a medical art course at the University of Dundee. There aren’t actually that many courses in the world that offer this. I saved up in Australia, went back to Scotland and did that last year. Then, I moved back to Ireland, and I’ve been trying to work in medical art since.

SIOBHA: Beautiful! In an earlier conversation, we discussed how there are currently few opportunities for freelance work in the medical art field in Ireland. Could you tell me more about that?

CELIA: Yes, I know that when I was doing my course, they told us there aren’t many jobs out there. But also, there aren’t enough people qualified in the field, so it evens out. Many medical artists and scientific illustrators in places like the UK and the USA work for different journals and universities. However, when I returned to Ireland, I realised there weren’t many opportunities over here. It’s mostly to do with funding. There are lots of people who would like a medical artist to visualise their research or work on some project with them. However, the funding for those projects is just not there, and then universities, hospitals, and things like that also don’t have the funding to create a whole job for someone. I’ve gotten a few projects with physiotherapists in Ireland and then had quite a few projects with a company in the UK. They were interventional cardiologists, so that was very interesting. I got a whole crash course in interventional cardiology, which is kind of. I’m going off track here, but it’s a huge draw for this job. Because I can work with many industry and research experts and get into the most specific medical and scientific topics without having to complete a university degree. So, I get to have this pick and mix.

SIOBHA: Oh, that sounds amazing.

CELIA: Yeah, I mean, it’s like this lifelong learning, I suppose, which I’m a big advocate for. But, as I said, at the end of the day, if you work in a field, you want to be able to earn money. And that’s been proving not easy in Ireland, I would say.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our interview with Celia McCarthy, where we discuss her work on the PCOS handbook and the importance of representation in medical illustration. 

Find Celia Online:

•Instagram: @c.m.c.c.d.e.s.i.g.n

•Website: CMCC Design & Illustration