by Mary-Kate Roan
Staff Writer
The Mayo Clinic and the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens presented to the public a true combination of art and science when the exhibit “Scalpel to Sketch: The Science and Beauty of Medical Illustrations at Mayo Clinic” opened Thursday.
From hand drawn sketches and paintings to today’s use of technology and graphic designs, the work of 47 artists tells the history of the little-known profession of medical illustrators at the Mayo Clinic. Beginning in 1907 with Florence Byrnes until the latest work in 2007 from David Cheney, the art is used to help explain the science behind the doctor’s scalpel.
“The Mayos were general surgeons,” said Bob Morreale, the creative services director for the Mayo Clinic’s Medical Illustration Unit in Rochester, Minn. “The drawings helped them.”
There are only five colleges in North America that offer the medical illustration program, with four in the United States while the other is in Canada. To get into a program, the aspiring illustrators must submit a portfolio of work to a school’s medical illustration department to be judged along with grades and other prerequisite materials such as anatomy classes taken.
“They only take around four to 12 people per class,” said Alice McKinney, the only medical illustrator in Jacksonville’s Mayo Clinic. “And to work at Mayo, you have to get a master’s degree in Medical Illustration.”
Once finished with a two-year program to obtain a master’s degree, the illustrators are then hired by the medical community. Sometimes, they are invited to operating rooms to draw from observation while the procedure is taking place.
In some cases, the drawings and works of the medical illustrators can be used as a reference for surgeries not yet performed. One such case was that of Abbigail and Isabelle Carlsen. Born as conjoined twins, the operation took months of preparation to separate the girls. A three-dimensional image was created for the surgeons to reference before and during the day-long surgery.
“The Mayos were innovators and educators,” said Dr. Jerry Pietan, the Assistant Professor of Radiology at the Mayo Clinic’s College of Medicine. “These illustrations can be used to broaden education.”
To say that a picture is worth a thousand words would be an understatement. Medical illustrators’ works can be seen in all forms of publication, especially in medical journals and textbooks.
“We are very excited to have this exhibit because we don’t get a lot of opportunities to celebrate living artists,” said Cummer Director of Education Hope McMath. “This will bring in a very different audience.”
While the Cummer Museum’s traditional audience might question whether drawings of what lies within the human body classify as art, it will likely get attention.
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