Warning: Discussion of both art and intestines follows. Read on at your own choosing.
I’ve been intrigued by our gastrointestinal systems since as a young mother I became aware of how sugar, other junk food and antibiotics were affecting my family’s digestive tracts. Recently my need to follow a low FODMAP diet has continued to make clear the importance of caring for our gut health.
I wanted to make a lino print honouring the importance of healthy digestion and had in mind some kind of abdomen / cross-section image. For a while though, I was stuck on how to show a tiny varied eco system with the broad lines of a lino print.
Then I read of a healthy intestine referred to as a “veritable (true) garden”. This idea resonated with me, and became a way I could portray this without trying to be too anatomically accurate about it. The idea blossomed and was mixed with a cup and a half of artistic license … our internal flora and fauna are of course microscopic, numbered in their thousands, and more-varied-and-not-even-the-same as flourishing Spring garden!
Here’s the late Orange Cat keeping watch during lino block carving process:
Here’s an article about our microbiomes, including a well made 4 minute animated video.
Hopefully, I’ve made a pleasant-you-can-have-it-in-your-house-or-office picture that has an accessible yet not sugar-coated (<< hah, see what I did there?) overview of our digestive innards.
Here’s one of the prints partially painted. #workinprogress
Did you know? When making the A Veritable Garden prints ready for my recent Happy To Be Here Exhibition, I made a set of PPs, which are ‘Printers Proofs’. As you can see they’re painted slightly differently but the prints are all alike. Here are prints 2-5. Number 1 and number 2 are sold. Coincidence? I think not. Bold souls are smart and hilarious!
Here’s the first Printers Proof, completely painted.
If you’ve digestive issues, I don’t expect you to pipe up in the comments, although you’re welcome to. Otherwise, let me know if this kind of cross-section image gives you more of a holistic sense of your own interior – ‘cos I might do a few more body organs in the same kind of way.
Namaste, dearheart!
Meg x o
PS If this is your kind of thing, check out my food/no sugar/low fodmaps pinterest board.
PS2 A Veritable Garden is a set of printers proofs, each labelled with PP. The merely 5 prints in this whole series are unique Watercolors. If you love owning and/or gifting bold art pieces that only 4 other people on this entire planet will ever have, this is for you! There are just 3 originals remaining. If your gut is telling you it wants one (!) – click this to find out more about hand painted A Veritable Garden lino prints.
PS3 Wondering what the h*ck FODMAPs is? Click this to check out an introductory article, and here’s a new piece on how to keep your mental health while following it!
PS4 If you’re getting interested in diet and gut health, you might like this Jonathan Fields / Good Life Project interview with JJ Virgin.