Explaining his use of a mechanical typewriter, the poet James Galvin says, “It’s partly tactile. I envy painters for having such a physical relationship with what they do.” Artists make marks with their bodies; in turn, art marks the body. This reciprocal marking sometimes demands response. Some artists’ historical relationships with physically toxic media, for example, demonstrate clear health implications that need attention, so a painter today might practice their art without using cadmium yellow. Other physical consequences of making art could include a screen printer’s routine rest to spare their shoulder repetitive stress injury or a book binder's material manipulation to protect their hands from knife cuts. Yet, for artists who revel in the physicality of their creative processes, art practice is a balm: a weaver meditates in repetition, a sculptor shapes a figure or a world, a performer feeds and is fed by live and asynchronous audiences’ collective energy. This issue considers how art practices influence embodiment experiences. Specifically, art practice can prompt changes to how we regard and accommodate patterns of inhabiting our bodies and our selves. Art practices prompt adaptation to our experiences of tension over time between what creative processes demand of artists and how they might promote healing among artists and their audiences. Finally, considering embodiment in art can help us cultivate insights we can apply to health care as an enterprise and practice.
To mark the 5th anniversary of the AMA Journal of Ethics' Art of Medicine internship program with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, we invite art submissions to the June 2025 issue. Art works that explore embodiment as critical to artistic practices will be prioritized, especially those with promise to (1) broaden and deepen inquiry in health care ethics and health policy; (2) forge new insight into intersections among ethics, aesthetics, and health care; and (3) prompt innovation in how we draw upon and apply our humanistic impulses in health care. Submissions from artists in all educational and career stages in nearly any media are welcome. Thematic content may include but are not limited to movements an artist’s body repeats in their practice, mitigating bodily wear and tear to develop longevity of an art practice, art materials that have gone out of use due to toxicity, partitioning of creative space according to material use (eg, sprays) within artists’ studios or collectives, art practice as comfort, creative expression changes done to accommodate changes to an artist’s body, and body as creative inspiration.
Content submitted for review and consideration must comply with requirements listed on our Call for Art Work and be submitted by 30 July 2024.
The AMA Journal of Ethics® invites original, English-language contributions for peer review consideration on the upcoming themes.