Drawings using inks made from plants that grow in/alongside the River Avon enabled me to draw my body with the help of the river, whilst gathering found imagery of kidneys in my sketchbook supported me to make sense of inner blockages, when I developed kidney stones and waited for them to pass.

Even as I sat in the waiting room at the hospital, waiting for an x-ray, I was reading about St Aelred of Rievaulx (Rievaulx meaning River Valley) the patron saint of kidney stones, whose Saint’s day it happened to be that day, and making notes on my phone for further artwork.

James Aldridge, ecological artist and collaborator/tutor on the Year 3, Blue Health elective research programme at Bristol Medical School

Artist website :  https://www.jamesaldridge-artist.co.uk/