The ART Of Infertility

In this special episode, Sarah & Kaela are highlighting artists being featured at “Challenging Conception: The ART of Infertility in Chicago.”  "The ART of Infertility is a traveling art exhibit and oral history project that documents the experience of infertility. Through storytelling and artwork, The ART of Infertility translates the experiences of infertility patients to medical practitioners, physicians, legislators and the general public. It is hoped that the project displays the human experiences of infertility rather than reinforce the medical discourse of the disease." Here are the artists being featured in this episode!

 

Elizabeth Walker & Maria Novotny, Ph.D. - http://www.artofinfertility.org/

Elizabeth & Maria are the co-founders and co-directors of the ART of Infertility.  They discuss how they began their work together after meeting in May of 2014 in Washington, D.C., where they were both lobbying for infertility legislation on Capitol Hill.  They also give insight into their mission of bringing awareness to the many facets of infertility and family building.

 

Raina Cowan - http://rainacowanarttherapist.com/

Raina is a licensed clinical professional counselor and registered art therapist with a Master’s degree in art therapy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.   She talks about her art therapy practice and what it means to use art as a way to cope with infertility and loss.  She also shares her personal experience with recurrent pregnancy loss and adoption.

 

Christine McDonough - https://infertilityillustrated.com/

Christine is a talented illustrator who talks about using art to cope with the humor, absurdity, and pain of infertility and pregnancy loss.  Her popular Instagram account, @infertilityillustrated, is “designed to illustrate an average day in the life of someone dealing with infertility.”  She talks about her creative process and what inspires her creative illustrations. For more info on Christine, listen to “Episode 36: Mafia Meet Christine - Infertility Illustrated.”

 

Shannon Novotny - http://www.shannonnovotny.com/

Shannon identifies herself as a scientist first, but she’s also a very talented visual artist who knows science can’t always satisfy our human subjectivity.  She shares that as “human beings, we can never truly experience objectivity. My work attempt to bridge the [science] gap by subjectively illustrating the self-renewal processes in the world around us in a way that can hopefully inspire us to be just as durable.” She also opens up about her experience with secondary infertility and loss and how art has helped her process her experience with loss and infertility.

Join us at “Challenging Conception: The ART of Infertility in Chicago” on October 13th for a live panel discussion from 6-9pm.

 
Open Studio Project Inc

903 Sherman Avenue

Evanston, IL 60202

 
Email questions, comments, and other mafia matters to infertilemafia@gmail.com

Join the closed Facebook group: The Infertile Mafia

Follow on Instagram @infertilemafiapodcast