Artwork Inspired by Pain and Healing

Porcupine Girl Impaled by Rosemary Feit Covey

Online museum features orthopaedics-inspired artwork.

Porcupine Girl Impaled by Rosemary Feit Covey depicts pain as spikes.

To some, medicine is a science and an art. Both require creativity, specific skills, and an outcome.

Above: The Orthopaedist by Lee Berger, MD. An orthopaedic surgeon for 24 years, Berger has been an artist even longer.

Above: Inner Liberty by Tuy Nga Brignol, a physician and artist. Brignol was diagnosed with scoliosis at 18. She uses art as a meditation and relaxation method.

The artwork and short bios of these and 150 other artists, patients and orthopaedic clinicians and surgeons from around the world are on display in an online museum and at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco March 5-9 as part of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons’ 75^th anniversary. Some works will also be displayed at the Chicago Cultural Center April 17–July 22.

The Academy invited artists to submit work that illustrated some emotional aspect of an orthopaedic condition, feelings about patient-physician partnerships, or works that depicted the history of orthopaedics or a practitioner’s reason for becoming an orthopaedist.