Kirsty Stevens

Visual Artist and Designer, Kirsty Stevens was studying Jewellery and Metal Design at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, and was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a lifelong condition affecting the brain and central nervous system. Determined to make something positive out of this negative diagnosis she began using her own MRI scans to create unexpected patterns inspired by the harmful lesions on the brain. In 2014 she founded ‘CHARCOT’,a surface pattern design label, named after the French Neurologist, Jean-Martin Charcot, who discovered MS in 1868. This allowed her to lease prints around the world and speak at international events.

Throughout her extended lockdown during the pandemic due to being immunocompromised, she fully lent into ‘crip time’ and embraced the slower pace and beauty of drawing. This led to a new creative practice within visual arts.
During lockdown Stevens added layered drawing to her design practice. Using mixed media layers inspired by her own MRI scans and Radiology Reports, her creative practice is a continuing investigation into the invisible. She creates her own slides and stills on waxed paper of what she feels, experiences and has been told is happening within her body.

Her most recent work of this nature got her to final 5 of applicants for a yearlong residency at Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The panel were excited by her practice, particularly the exploration of drawing, layering, and light which Stevens uses to visually describe her relationship with the invisible neurological disease, Multiple Sclerosis