Lorna Carmen McNeill
Arts Medicine Lab
Lorna is a multi-disciplinary artist, qualified teacher and facilitator (see CV for education, shows, commissions, residencies) She has been involved in creativity and creative facilitation for a number of years. Her artwork is immersive, sensory and experiential to inspire people to achieve positive personal transformation and improve well-being. She has exhibited widely and received several Arts Council and other Awards to develop her own artwork and for community development. Lorna originally trained and practised as a Clinical Nutritionist and health behaviour change trainer within the NHS, community, research and the private sector. She worked extensively with psychologists, training health professionals in core counselling skills, cognitive, behavioural and motivational strategies for achieving lifestyle change. She has run innovative courses on art and to improve well-being in the NHS, Further education, Art Colleges, Universities, Schools and the Corporate world.
She is interested in how different art forms can mutually strengthen and support each other to infuse creativity into the heart of life. Rather than questioning how creative a person is, she invites them to explore what they can do with the creativity that they intrinsically already are.
Lorna founded Arts Medicine lab, in 2021. It is a platform for experimental collaborations and taught workshops across multiple art forms (including visual art, sound, voice, music, movement, dance, words). It fosters a dialogue between different art practices to cultivate improved health on all levels. Arts Medicine Lab works to achieve transformative and immersive experiences to enable deeper connection, meaning, peace, expression and joy.
"I create art to connect with something greater than myself. I am fascinated by human potential for transformation and how it connects to the evolutionary cosmology and the Journey of our Universe.
A previous career as a health professional (More info) informs my interest in well-being and creativity. I am now committed to facilitating meaningful reflection, connectedness and transformation through my work and art practice. I work to unite newer light, digital and interactive technologies with fine art and sculpture. Using a wide range of materials and methods, I work rapidly to transcend the rational mind and capture the essence of what I connect to. My final pieces are the manifestation of extensive sensory experimentation via drawing (pencil, charcoal, pastels, inks), painting (watercolour, acrylic, oils), sculpture (wire, clay, paper, thermoplastics, fibreoptics), exploring corresponding movements with the body, and animation through light, film and kinetic technologies.
I find multi-disciplinary, diverse and multi-cultural work compelling as it enables the possibility of unexpected creative discovery at the edge of the disciplines. Working to go beyond the familiar, creates the space for new dimensions to open up.
My aim is to facilitate others to connect with inspiration and their individual passion through viewing my installations or participating in my workshops. I hope that my work triggers a process that reveals that at this moment each individual belongs and can make a unique and meaningful difference and contribution to the evolution of our universe. My installations are an invitation for the viewer to live their potential, to enter an immersive experience of a greater reality: a dynamic world of connectedness, and creative processes."
RESPONSES TO LORNA'S INSTALLATIONS
"Beautiful - not enough beauty in art" Suzie Zamit, Sculptor, London
"A truly uplifting and inspirational experience" Jean Bicknell, London
"I feel comforted, soothed, cooled - to me this work is futuristic/visionary - the process of heating and surrendering form ready for transformation - inspiring and hopeful" Jane Moore, London
“Mesmerisingly beautiful. When I feel I need uplifting I put on my headphones and watch the 2 minute video I made of your work and feel energised! It's amazing!” Shirley-Ann Dixon, Artist, London