Most
health policy meetings are a dull gray snooze of business suits talking data.
They seem a million miles removed from making sick people healthy. But this
week in Washington, D.C., some of those meetings was enlivened by a sudden
flash of color.
The
back of one woman's suit jacket bore a painting, a Renoir-like portrait of a
mother and child. A man's blazer showed him reborn after years of despair. Another
woman's jacket portrayed a young man holding his organ donor card. A petite
redhead's jacket blazed with a scarlet letter "A."
It
was an insurrection of sorts, the latest incarnation of something called the
Walking Gallery. The paintings on the back of jackets tell tale about the
wearers' odysseys through the labyrinth of the American health care system.
The
paintings speak of struggle, frustration and loss. But there's also
perseverance, great love and triumph in the face of tragedy.
For more info: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/06/04/188679224/an-artists-brush-reveals-tales-of-struggle-and-survival?ft=1&f=1002&sc=igg2
