Jennifer C.H. Sebring, PhD(c)

Vanier Canada Graduate Scholar

Portraits of Patienthood

This collage features a long, yellow background constructed by two pieces of paper taped together. At the top are collaged images of people looking over a cliff and next to that a human anatomy model, an eyeball, and a hand holding a pencil. Extending down from this corner montage are red and yellow pills falling to the bottom of the page. 1/3 of the way down the page is a hand reaching down accompanied by the text “bigger than your existence.” Below this, is a human figure in a pink outfit with a skull in place of their head. they look to be falling with their hands and feet reaching up while they hold a sign that says “we shall overcome.” Finally, the bottom third of the page features various collaged landscapes, a knife pointing upwards toward the falling human figure, and another human figure climbing a ladder that is placed against an image of a mountain.
This collage is completed on pale pink paper. A large skull decorated with colorful florals, text, and other elements takes up most of the page. Outside the skull, white clouds containing question marks are painted on the page. The top of the skull is pasted over with an image that resembles a rock. Small yellow text follows the outer edge of the rock, reading “All you need…”. The right hand side of the skull, what would be the forehead, is filled with squiggles surrounding a hand reaching up and out of the skull. The skull has bright blue pupils with accentuating marks painted in, and a red screw reaching into the left eye socket. The skull has yellow ink with black text painted over the mouth, reading “Fake.” The left side of the skull features a stop sign. Finally, there is text to the left of the jaw that reads “I won’t help you…” and text to the right of the jaw that reads “Too much truth.”
This collage features a busy background of colorful lines intersected by black sections, resembling a glitching computer screen. At the top left, a quote is pasted: “Truth suffers from too much analysis” in a bold, block font. Directly underneath are two vignettes. The first is a feminine person sitting cross legged on the ground, holding a sign. Instead of words, the sign is covered in pink glitter. The second vignette includes the following elements: a mirror, and eyeball, a clock, two figures cloaked in personal protective equipment, a masculine silhouette in a suit and hat with the face whited out, a ruler, and two dice. The bottom half of the collage is separated from the top with a rectangular strip portraying a pink sky with a sun flare. Below and to the right is a grey cloud, with a block of texted pasted on top, reading “How did the star dust in the vast dark realm above me evolve into this massive volcano beneath my feet?”. Beside this is a fabric doll, with black circles scribbled in marker all over its head, neck, stomach, and knees. Finally, the vignette in the bottom left features a feminine person with their head in a book, an elephant, a light pink ringed shape that resembles a tree stump, backpackers trekking across a snowy landscape, and a tall pillar cut into three pieces, as if it is crumbling.
This collage consists of a black and white starry sky as the top half while the bottom half consists of strips of landscape imagery transitioning from purple tones to pink to dark blue. In the top left, a rock climber is positioned to be scaling the moon. Next to this, there are two hands reaching for each other, with the text “help” pasted between them. One hand has bandages around several fingers. Immediately next to this is a vignette consisting of a mirror, a window dressed with curtains, a blanket, and a clock, and the text “triggers”. The imagery in this vignette transitions from the top background imagery and overlaps with the bottom landscape imagery. The following images follow from this, counterclockwise: a fabric doll, upside down, with the text “warrior.” A hand, marked with pink sparkly polka dots, holds a small hold knife; two legs are posed, with the same pink sparkly polka dots. The bust of a Grecian statue, with “aesthetics” written across its eyes. An eye, with large cut-out tears falling from it, to the text “healing.” A figure sitting cross legged, with a skull in place of its head, holding the sign “We shall overcome.” The text “The silver lining” overlaps the figure. Finally, a pillar, with the text “allergic” next to it in small font.
The background of this collage consists of two parts. The top half is colorful lines that resemble a glitching computer screen, while the bottom is solid light green construction paper. Centered in the page is a large black and white skull, decorated with various images. The images are mostly clustered around the top of the skull, and include: a sign reading “we shall overcome”, a toy airplane, a man weight lifting, a grey cloud, a clock, an eye, googly eyes, a window with curtains, a knife, and a person in personal protective equipment with the word “SUFFER” pasted across their torso. The skull is wearing xray vision glasses and has a red tear-shaped object falling from its eyes. To the bottom left of the collage is a cartoon doctor. Dice are pasted by his hands, a speech bubble reading “Not broken enough” extends from his mouth, and the word “unconcerned” is pasted against a pink, sparkly rectangle above his head. To the bottom right of the collage is a feminine person, sitting cross legged on a chair, with another chair next to them. They have red tape in an X over their mouth, and their hand raised in the air. A large pill bottle decorated with sparkly paper is pasted in front of them.
This collage consists of three pages of construction paper (pink, green, and blue) pasted in an overlapping manner, resembling a triangular wheel. The pink page includes sparkling text at the top reading “Y’all just aren’t that interesting.” Below this, a fabric doll with a skull for a head, a bed, and a person with long wavy hair touching their hand to their face. Next to this is a line drawing of two hands reaching out to touch together, but the drawing has been ripped in half. Finally, there is an image of a statue bust with a shape filled with squiggly lines pasted across their face. The green page features an image of an older television set. A face has been created on the screen, using a cut-out eye, lips, and a sunflower in place of the second eye. Two legs reach out of the side of the television, and a hand reaches out of the top toward the pink page. Finally, the blue page consists of a cartoon doctor with their head ripped off, a clock, a plate of spaghetti with a cherry on top, an anatomy model, a pill made out of sparkly and colorful paper, a full moon and a crescent moon, a shape that resembles tree rings, eyes and lips, and an image of two people looking out over a cliff. Each page is accented with lines and squiggles in black marker.
The background of this collage has been constructed with pink paper overlaying a green background. The pink paper has a spiral shaped cut out, accented with green spikes. At the center of the spiral, in the middle of the page, is an old television set with the word liar across it in pink hand cut letters. A large black and white eye is pasted in the bottom left corner of the collage.
This collage is completed on white paper with a large hand-drawn balloon as the central image. The balloon is attached to a string which stems out of a glass vial labeled healing. A sharp pin has been drawn in the top right, poised to pop the balloon. the balloon is decorated with a black and white skull wearing a vase of flowers a top its head. surrounding the previously mentioned vial are several arrows pointing out to different words. The words are: yoga, meds, massage, support, specialist, exercise, money, self care, therapy, love. The right side of the collage has two strips of paper depicting pink skies, pasted vertically. The bottom left of the collage features a small clock with the words tick tock!
This collage is constructed in a three-dimensional “pop-up” style. The background is brightly coloured stripes, and the bottom of the display is a soft yellow. The images are arranged roughly in three sections. The first section, to the left, starts with the text “going beyond”. Following this up is three mushrooms, a mountainside, a card showing spiritual iconography that reads “be my guide” and a clock. The second section, toward the middle, includes a sharp knife set over two legs, two friendly looking figures that are joined together, a play house, different colours and patterns and landscape imagery, a person with their head in a book, and a hand reaching up. The final section, shows dice, a notebook with the words “#15267 Patient is Sad ?” written on it; a hand holding a bottle labelled “pills”, a skull wearing glasses, text that reads “Labelled Abled”, a crescent moon, a gemstone with underwear pasted on top, and another hand reaching down.
This collage is completed on a blue, purple, and white watercolor background. In the top left corner is a bird’s eye view of a rollercoaster in a theme park. The right side features a woman sitting cross legged holding a sign, reading “I’m desparate.” Around her are a dark grey scribbly cloud, a vase of flowers, a star, a vintage picture of someone weight lifting, and two smiling figures joined together. Below this is another vignette, including an anatomy model, leafy vegetables, and a notebook with the following words written: “addict? ADHD. GAD. Sad. lazy.” To the left is another vignette, separated out from the rest of the collage with blue trim and a colorful textured background. Inside is a man in a suit with a mask covering his face, dice, handcut pills, a clock, and a fabric doll.

This project constituted my Master’s thesis in Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba. The study sought to understand the healthcare experiences of young women and non-binary adults living with chronic illnesses. Drawing on the theme of “patienthood,” I invited participants to create multi-media collages that represented their experiences by illustrating what being a patient meant to them, and how they understand and conceptualize patienthood.

Please see the following links for more information or view the resulting artwork on this page.