One Red Leaf at a Time: an international art project
As we approach the end of ME Awareness month, The Red Leaf Creative Collaborative is excited to launch One Red Leaf at a Time: an international art project.
I began The Red Tree and ME in December 2024 with ‘The Red Tree’ and M.E. - One leaf at a time, which introduced the concept behind this Substack. The Red Tree and ME draws its inspiration from Shaun Tan’s The Red Tree and its relevance to those living with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME). Shaun Tan kindly granted permission for his art to be used for this purpose.
The responses from the ME community to the first article indicated that Shaun Tan’s masterpiece had resonated with readers who had ME and with fellow carers. As we approached yet another new year with no cure, ever in search of ‘red leaves’, I reached out to leading clinicians and researchers studying ME, Long COVID, and other Infection-Associated Chronic Conditions (IACCs) for messages of hope. Red leaves in the form of messages of encouragement, solidarity, and hope of scientific progress flooded in from multiple clinicians and researchers including: Dr Lucinda Bateman, Professor Ron Davis, Professor Wes Ely, Professor Akiko Iwasaki, Professor Douglas Kell, Professor Robert Naviaux, Professor Chris Ponting, Professor Resia Pretorius, Professor Bhupesh Prusty, Professor David Putrino, Professor Carmen Scheibenbogen and many more.
This beautiful message from Professor Akiko Iwasaki is a particular favourite:
Inspired by these messages of hope, The Red Leaf Creative Collaborative was born: a group of creatives including patients, carers and allies who started to think about how we could use these messages of hope as inspiration for creative expressions that might in turn raise awareness and generate further hope. From photography, landscape art, batik and painting to mosaics, cyanotypes and textiles, the collaborative has already generated some beautiful pieces. We envisage that these pieces will now provide the inspiration for a wider art project to raise further awareness of ME and the need for funding for research, treatments and a cure.
The current plan is that One Red Leaf at a Time: an international art project will run through the remainder of 2025, culminating in a virtual exhibition.
If you, or anyone you know, would like to contribute a creative expression on the theme of ‘One Red Leaf at a Time’, to support the aims of this project, please register your interest. If you are unable to access the form (e.g. if you do not have a Google account) please send an email to jo(at)theredtreeandme.com and we will send you the details for submitting your artwork.
