The role of medical illustrators in combating poor diversity in medical textbooks and advice to aspiring artists – Part 3
Interview between Siobha Murphy: Interviewer & Celia McCarthy: Medical Artist and Scientific Illustrator
Previously, in Part 2, Celia shared her motivations behind creating the PCOS handbook and the importance of dismantling shame around women’s health issues.
SIOBHA: I have another question related to the role of medical illustrators in combatting the poor diversity in medical textbooks. Currently, as it stands, most of the diagrams that are given to people in the medical field depict only cis, white, straight-sized, abled bodies that align with typical caucasian beauty standards, leading to vast numbers of people not being represented in their medical issues. Do you think that’s something that needs to be looked at in medical illustration?
CELIA: It’s something that definitely informed the type of figures that I tried to represent in my PCOS handbook. I was not only looking at hirsutism but also acne or weight gain. I wanted to represent it on a diverse range of bodies in terms of skin colour and race, and from that, I only had something like nine figures drawn in my resource. If I could extend it and make an extended resource, I would want to add people with different headdresses and different styles of clothes. Maybe more piercings? Things that kind of humanise the figures a little bit. If you open up your anatomy book and you are just seeing white bodies that are toned, lean, mid-range height, and able-bodied, when you go into the real world and you’re presented with diverse bodies, you won’t understand them. Bodies can be healthy and not look like the “standard”. Or there are so many bodies that can be sick and not look like the “standard” sick as well. This idea needs to be applied to medicine and to our future doctors. “Normal” comes in so many different forms, and even if you know that in theory, it needs to be built into our education system. So that it is kind of like in your subconscious, it’s ingrained in you. You know what I mean.
It’s not just something where you have to take a step back and be like, okay, I need to be objective. It just needs to be the way we look at people.
SIOBHA: That also helps to remove a lot of the barriers of elitism, I think. Not to pull on old cliches, but a picture does tell a thousand words, and it’s so much easier to communicate what different conditions look like to people when it’s that visual medium of the illustration.
CELIA: Scientific illustration can really help with medical literacy. Because not everyone has the same access to resources or education, and as our population in Ireland and beyond becomes so much more diverse, you have so many more languages. So many more backgrounds. Pictures and illustrations can support people in understanding what a physician is communicating so people can be a bit more confident engaging with their health and feel represented.
SIOBHA: I know I felt very validated reading your book. I think it’s also a good point to add that people will recognise that they’re sick and will do their own research and will come to medical professionals and that’s where the roadblock is. It’s the physician validating them.
CELIA: Yeah, that’s absolutely true. There is a breach there. That needs to be corrected. I think that, on that point as well, healthcare should be collaborative. I think so many patients know they know their body the best. Whether you can verbalize it or not, when you go to a doctor, and they suggest some management plan that maybe you’ve tried before, or maybe you know actually that doesn’t agree with your body at all, there should be openness or opportunity to say “Actually, that really doesn’t work for me. Could we try something else?” and be respected in that response, not patronised. Because at the end of the day. I think everyone has gone to the doctor. And has left feeling like, “Oh, well, I haven’t really been heard. Or I wish I had said so and so. Or, like, I can’t believe I have to do this now for the next six weeks or six months, and I know it’s not going to work for me because I know my body best. But I wasn’t able to talk to my physician about it.” If people are facilitated to the point where they feel they have the strength or the knowledge – or the health literacy, we’ll say – to collaborate with their physician rather than just do what they’re told.
SIOBHA: RCSI launched a 2023 to 2025 Art Strategy last year, focusing on developing and evolving the college’s understanding and collection of art. How do you think the intersection of art and science helps both fields to develop?
CELIA: That was something that I spent a lot of time thinking about before I studied medical art. And also during the course as well. I think – and I might not be answering the question, like, head on here – but I think that for too long, people talked about, like, what kind of brain do you have. Is it a science brain or a creative arts brain? Are you into the humanities, or are you into science? And I don’t think that there are many people that are one or the other so everyone falls somewhere on the spectrum. For a long time, because I was good at secondary school in my science subjects, I thought, “I’m a maths brain, I’m a numbers person, I’m a logic person”. And now that I’m nurturing both sides of myself through my work and, you know, exploring my interests, there’s a lot of freedom and validation in that. The two of them can benefit each other. There was one exhibition actually in hens teeth not too long ago. I was in contact with someone, and her name was Rucha Benare. Have you heard of her?
SIOBHA: Doesn’t ring a bell, sorry.
CELIA: I’ll show you the exhibition. She’s a mechanical engineer and she put on this exhibition all about the intersection of art and science. In particular, the mechanics of the human body. It was a chance for usually strictly STEM people to communicate, not only their research. But also their interest in science. Like they’re so passionate about science. So passionate that it was like, it could come out as poetry. It’s gorgeous to witness. Why does poetry have to be like nature scenes or the love of a person? Like, why can’t you just be, “I really love mechanical engineering. I want to write a poem about it!” There’s an inherently human part of that creativity that I think doctors especially aren’t afforded sometimes. They’re supposed to be these very logical, mechanical robots, even though there’s this whole creative, emotional side, which might not be exactly what you need to diagnose a patient, but like, why not bring it into your work somehow? There’s always room for creativity. Maybe it’s the way you design your office or the waiting room. Art has so many uses beyond just looking nice. It’s constantly beneficial.
SIOBHA: Of course! Being surrounded by beautiful things has positive effects on the human body. I know there was this book that I read it when I was about 16 that touched on that. I borrowed it from the library, and I think it was called Catharsis. It was the book that I read that made me comfortable with going into medicine. Up until that point, I knew I struggled with the idea because I would also consider myself an artistic person. I love to paint and draw and write and I really didn’t want to have to sacrifice those parts of myself. But anyway, it was a book that discussed the development of medicine through art, although with an unfortunately European-centric lens. It’s incredibly irritating reading about white European men being labelled as innovators when you know they were discovering these things centuries after their Black and Brown counterparts. It was specifically focused on the Renaissance and the development of anatomical studies, which only came through artists. It’s the reason why we acknowledge and venerate the Renaissance man. Because. They were able to encompass, acknowledge and celebrate all aspects of themselves in both the science and the arts. And seeing that just laid out clear where it’s like “no, you do not have to divorce these parts of yourself” made me so much more comfortable with going down the medicine route. Like, you wouldn’t have done the brilliant things that you’ve done if you weren’t able to marry those two parts of yourself!
CELIA: Yes, exactly!
SIOBHA: After discussing your journey with us, would you have any words for those hoping to do similar?
CELIA: You may want to go down the medicinal illustration route if you want to be able to express yourself through the work that you do, especially if you have a broad range of interests. It’s essential to choose a job that fulfils and supports your interests. For example, when I was in medicinal chemistry, I just liked something in me – I didn’t know at the time what it was. But I was like, I just don’t feel like I’m ticking all the boxes that I need career-wise. My advice wouldn’t necessarily be specifically towards artists, but I think that there’s something out there for everyone. You just need to look for it. And for me, it took years of self-exploration. And in the end it took a Google search – I think I wrote something like “stable careers in illustration and science” and scientific illustration is what popped up. I remember believing beforehand that art was only a hobby for me. I didn’t believe that I had the talent or drive. But yeah, I think that if you want to be an artist, there is a way for everyone to be an artist. It should not be gate-kept because it’s such a beautiful thing to be able to express yourself in more than just words. It’s so important to be able to communicate visually, through poetry, or whatever it is. So, yeah, I think art is for everyone. Anyone can be an artist, and if you want to make it into your career, there is absolutely a space for you and your art in the worlds of science and/or healthcare.
If you want to see more of Celia McCarthy and her work, you can find her on Instagram: @c.m.c.c.d.e.s.i.g.n and on her website: CMCC Design & Illustration or https://www.cmcc-design.com/
You can find Rucha Benere on Instagram @muse.ex.machina
Find Celia Online:
•Instagram: @c.m.c.c.d.e.s.i.g.n
•Website: CMCC Design & Illustration