As part of my experience of loss and in particular, of loss to cancer, for 18 months I have taken part in a Cancer Insight’s Panel with Pfizer which looks to find ways to improve how we think of very difficult subjects such as devastating illness, the impacts on family, employment and friends and to provide potential solutions to improve how we might think of pre-diagnosis, diagnosis, treatment, potential recovery or further cancer occurrence and what comes next. Working with a group of different people with a wide range of experience related to cancer including patients, medical professionals, and the staff from Pfizer has been a rewarding experience which provides me with an emotional outlet for my feelings of grief and allows me space to put something positive back into the cancer community. Although cancer is not directly related to my project work in level 3, I decided to seek opportunities to see if there was any opportunity to make use of my artistic expression which I came to understand I used as a form of art therapy in forming my work centred around my children, their illnesses and my daughter’s death. I did not know if this would come to fruition or if my experiences were relevant to my studies with the OCA.
Then after a year of working with Pfizer, an opportunity arose as another team was looking for suitable applicants to share our stories to be used as a way to reach out to those affected by cancer to offer support and inspire those impacted by cancer. I decided to ask to be considered for this group. I did not know if I would prove an interesting subject or not and whether I would get through the interview process. In subsequent discussions, I told my story and was accepted. I had to record a video talking of my experiences when my children had cancer. After this, the group asked me for photographs of Rebecca and Robbie and asked me if I would show them some of my artwork.
I chose some earlier work in my current project where I had been looking at the medical scan as after conversations with Pfizer, this work seemed to fit best with their expectations. My more recent work, while very interesting, is more conceptual and Pfizer more reluctant to engage with those pieces. There was then a period of confusion as Pfizer thought I would let them have my work for free and I decided that the effort I had put into these works deserved payment. This led to a discussion on the payment and on licensing and on the time period they wanted to use my images. This was an interesting experience for me, agreeing on a price and on conditions for the use of my work. One last slight technical issue was with the size of some of my medical scan work. I explained the concept behind my work of re-imagining the medical scan as an artwork on a gallery wall and that the scans from the MRI scan were very small images of just 250 pixels squared and insufficient resolution to be shown as Pfizer wanted. I was please that Pfizer accepted my explanation of the concept and thought behind my work and were happy to display my work as I intended it to be seen.
While this engagement with Pfizer did not show my most recent project work there was much that I learned from this experience.
- Holding true to my vision for my art and explaining the context and thought behind my work showed me that we needn’t always give the customer what they ask for and that the artist has ultimate control over what they make and can always say thanks but no.
- How Pfizer showed the work online was interesting and something I can think about when showing my own work online. They put posts on social media using Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn as well as a newly built website. This maximised coverage to the distinct groups who use these different platforms.
- Although the project was not designed or implemented by me, there was the opportunity to shape the outcome and to see what was done and to ask myself if I would have made the same decisions in a purely educational or artistic project.
Links to these posts are shown below:
This work with Pfizer and making them aware of my art might not end with the project engagement I show above. I have also asked them if they might be interested in commissioning some further artwork from me and they are considering this proposal.