A Picture of Health”, pioneered by Professor Dame Amanda Fisher, aims to use art-science to explore what “A Picture of Health” means to society today.

Why “A Picture of Health”?

What “A Picture of Health” looks like invokes different ideas, thoughts, and feelings for different people, providing a unique insight into how different individuals across a cross-section of society perceive ‘health’. As part of the project, we invited a range of people from the public to send in their interpretation of “A Picture of Health”. Contributions came from a cross-section of society including healthcare workers, shopkeepers, bakers, scientists, artists, and our LMS staff, and well known faces including the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, author Ben Okri, poet Michael Rosen, playright Willy Russell and many more.

These contributions have been curated into a book that includes photographs, paintings, poems, and more remarkable artistic interpretations of “A Picture of Health”

Willy Russell - Common or Garden

A common or garden plant - something one would expect to find on common land, open field or uncultivated garden.

We scattered some seeds, a random mix on the barren patch, covered them over with the cold, damp January soil.  We supposed that not much would come of our admittedly meagre efforts and by the time the March winds blew, our planting was mostly forgotten.  And then the air softened, the days grew warmer and green shoots appeared, straining for the sky, swelling with the April showers; and bursting, exploding their glory into the warm May sun.

Time to get out the inks, the brushes, the paint, the paper and canvas; time to try to catch and hold something of this patch of unremarkable treasure, this all too common or garden miracle.  Time.  It won’t always be spring.