To mark the beginning of The Big Draw we’re celebrating our two new Drawn in Residence artists, Kieran Ryder-Lewis and Mereida Fajardo, who are BA Illustration graduates from the University of the West of England (UWE).
The Drawn in Residence programme acts as a stepping stone for artists, giving them the opportunity to apply their practice to a real-world environment and gain confidence documenting a unique healthcare setting. We use drawing to communicate hospital life and to improve the wellbeing of patients and staff.
The artists have embarked on projects across both our Chelsea and West Middlesex hospital sites. Their work includes drawing with patients, exploring the CW Innovation programme and capturing the ward environment. The work produced throughout their residency will be exhibited in our hospitals, providing lasting impact to patients, staff and visitors.
Meet our new starters:
KIERAN RYDER-LEWIS
Kieran Ryder-Lewis is an illustrator and creative designer currently based in Bristol. He grew up in Lancaster, before studying for a BA (Hons) in Illustration at UWE.
Living near the sea, fields and mountains helped Kieran to understand the language of people and places. He finds it calming to try out new locations and situations that help him retell stories. Combining traditional ink brush techniques and digital collage, Kieran is pursuing illustration through reportage, editorial and publishing.
What are you most enjoying about the project?
I’m enjoying learning new things and meeting all sorts of people. I’d like to explore visual communication with illustration involving natural imagery while I’m at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.
What do you hope the impact of your project will be?
I hope my drawings will impact staff and patients in a positive way, helping them to relax and feel less anxious.
MEREIDA FAJARDO
Mereida is an illustrator and comic maker from London, now based in Bristol. Her practice spans various media and styles but always has a focus on narrative and story. She loves experimenting with the language of comics and visual storytelling to explore human stories and redefine the meaning of comics.
She has always been inspired by landscape, and her recent projects have taken on a documentary approach, seeking inspiration from around the world – from ancient Chinese fishermen to truckers ferrying coal across the Mongolian desert. Now she is looking closer to home and learning the joy of conducting research firsthand through meeting people and drawing on site. She has self-published several short comics and zines.
What are you most enjoying about the project?
I usually find a lot of inspiration in true stories from around the world, which means researching them through books, documentaries and photographs rather than experiencing things in person. For this project I’m enjoying exploring and researching the environment firsthand – even though it scares me a little and I find drawing from life (as opposed to photographs) hard, it’s good to push myself out of my comfort zone, both socially and artistically.
What do you hope the impact of your project will be?
I am aiming to highlight the unsung heroes of the hospital, those people who work ‘backstage’ and are integral to the functioning of the hospital. I think these workers should be celebrated and I hope to make them feel seen and appreciated through my pencil and their own words.
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