{"id":3293,"date":"2021-02-15T13:44:38","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T18:44:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/?p=3293"},"modified":"2021-02-15T13:44:39","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T18:44:39","slug":"art-medicine-and-social-change-ted-meyer-and-dr-shelley-cohen-konrad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/art-medicine-and-social-change-ted-meyer-and-dr-shelley-cohen-konrad\/","title":{"rendered":"Art, Medicine, and Social Change – Ted Meyer and Dr. Shelley Cohen Konrad"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cI have not the slightest idea from where they come from,\u201d reflects Ted Meyer about his most recent collection of paintings, created amidst the COVID10 pandemic.<\/a>  The paintings are vibrant and whimsical. They include expansive pink desert landscapes and bright blue swirling skies through which fantastical horned creatures and lovers seem to buoy across.    \u201cMaybe I just can\u2019t do work about the world ending right now because I need a fantasy to escape to,\u201d he offers as a possible explanation, quickly following this with self-reproach that he should get back to doing \u201cmore serious work.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ted Meyer is a nationally recognized artist, curator and patient advocate. He helps patients express the reality of their experiences through art and share their truths with medical students and professionals as a path to creating more empathic understanding. The \u201cmore serious work\u201d he is referring to (and is most well-known for) includes a rich and compelling collection of artwork and patient stories around illness: his own genetic illness and the illnesses of others.  Ted was diagnosed with Gaucher Disease as a child (an enzyme deficiency that affects bones and joints), and his rare niche mixes art, medicine, and stories of healing and survival.  He spent much of his childhood in severe pain, and his work is influenced by the many hospital stays he endured as a child, where he began to mix art and medical supplies. Many of his early paintings include contorted graphic skeletal images, a reflection of his childhood belief that he would not live past 30. New drug treatments and joint replacements, however, completely changed the trajectory of both his life and his art.  He is now 62 years old and has dedicated many of those years to sharing the experiences of others\u2019 trauma and illness through art, advocacy, and storytelling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of this, he\u2019s collaborated with Shelley Cohen Konrad PhD, LCSW, FNAP,  Director of UNE School of Social Work<\/a>, who focuses much of her own work on art\u2019s healing and transformative powers.  \u201cTed and I met serendipitously in LA, and we knew right away that we had \u2018like minds\u2019 and wanted to work together,\u201d shares Shelley. Ted has traveled to Maine to present as part of UNE\u2019s Interprofesional programming<\/a>, but most of their work together has been national and international.  They\u2019ve been keynotes at the National Center for Interprofessional Education and Practice (the Nexus), Collaborating across Borders, and for All Together Better Health in Oxford.   \u201cTed shares his art, his personal story, and stories from the many patients he\u2019s worked with, while I offer scholarly background and theory,\u201d explains Shelley, then adds with a modest smile \u201cI\u2019m the boring part of the duo, really.  Ted\u2019s the one who moves hearts and minds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full article on UNE School of Social Work <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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