Bio
Ted Meyer is an internationally recognized artist, curator, writer, and patient advocate who helps people living with illness, as well as students and medical professionals, find meaning and resilience in the face of adversity. His decades-long visual art project, Scarred for Life: Monoprints of Human Scars, chronicles the trauma, healing, and courage of individuals who have lived through accidents and health crises.
A lifelong survivor of Gaucher Disease, a rare enzyme deficiency that affects the bones and joints, Theodore brings deep personal insight into the patient experience. His early work, shaped by years of pain and hospital stays, merged art with medical materials. Contorted, skeletal imagery reflected the prognosis that he would not survive past age 30. Today, with the aid of new treatments and joint replacements, Theodore considers himself healthy, and his artistic focus has shifted outward, from autobiographical themes to curating and amplifying the stories of others living with illness, disfigurement, and disability.
As Artist-in-Residence at the Keck School of Medicine of USC since 2016, Theodore curates exhibitions of artwork by patients whose illnesses align with the medical curriculum. These exhibitions, which are helping reshape medical humanities programs, feature artists living with MS, cancer, Parkinson’s disease, chronic pain, and other conditions, helping medical students better understand the human experience of illness. He is also a Visiting Scholar at the National Museum of Health and Medicine, a graduate of the Aspen Leadership Seminars, and was the 2017 Sterling Visiting Professor at Stanford University. Theodore has received both a California Creative Corps Grant and a CAC Individual Artist Fellowship, and was awarded the 2024 Patient Advocacy Award from the National Association of Practice. He has spoken on the main stages of both TEDMED and TEDx Anchorage. He is currently a guest faculty member with The Global Arts in Medicine Fellowship, where he advises patient artists and art therapists on developing art and medicine programs worldwide.
His new book, The Room Sinatra Died In, and Other Medically Adjacent Stories, is being incorporated into the medical humanities and narrative medicine programs of several medical schools.
Theodore’s recent video projects highlight stories of survival through interviews with patient artists, blind architects, and public figures, including General Michael Hayden, former head of the CIA and NSA, who is currently recovering from aphasia. His newest interview series focuses on survivors of the war in Gaza.
Theodore’s work seeks to improve physician-patient communication while also creating platforms for patients to tell their own stories and be heard. Through exhibitions, interviews, films, and the powerful narratives behind the Scarred for Life series, he opens conversations about pain, disfigurement, survival, and what it means to live fully with chronic illness. His work promotes empathy not only within medical education, but also among the broader public by giving voice to experiences that are often overlooked.
His art has been exhibited internationally in museums, hospitals, and galleries, and his work has been featured by NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and USA Today. His presentations reveal how a life shaped by illness can also become a catalyst for creativity, compassion, and connection.
In addition to his visual work, Theodore is a writer, illustrator, and filmmaker. His books include Shrink Yourself: The Complete Do-It-Yourself Book of Freudian Psychoanalysis, The Butt Hello – And Other Reasons My Cats Drive Me Crazy, Cats Around the World, Good Things You Can Learn from a Bad Relationship, and Scarred for Life. His award-winning documentary, King of Dinoland, tells the story of outsider artist Abe DeLacerda. Sheepdogs, a documentary about Theodore’s work with military veterans, is currently on the festival circuit.
[email protected]
www.TedMeyer.com • www.ArtandMed.com • Instagram: @TedMeyerArt
A lifelong survivor of Gaucher Disease, a rare enzyme deficiency that affects the bones and joints, Theodore brings deep personal insight into the patient experience. His early work, shaped by years of pain and hospital stays, merged art with medical materials. Contorted, skeletal imagery reflected the prognosis that he would not survive past age 30. Today, with the aid of new treatments and joint replacements, Theodore considers himself healthy, and his artistic focus has shifted outward, from autobiographical themes to curating and amplifying the stories of others living with illness, disfigurement, and disability.
As Artist-in-Residence at the Keck School of Medicine of USC since 2016, Theodore curates exhibitions of artwork by patients whose illnesses align with the medical curriculum. These exhibitions, which are helping reshape medical humanities programs, feature artists living with MS, cancer, Parkinson’s disease, chronic pain, and other conditions, helping medical students better understand the human experience of illness. He is also a Visiting Scholar at the National Museum of Health and Medicine, a graduate of the Aspen Leadership Seminars, and was the 2017 Sterling Visiting Professor at Stanford University. Theodore has received both a California Creative Corps Grant and a CAC Individual Artist Fellowship, and was awarded the 2024 Patient Advocacy Award from the National Association of Practice. He has spoken on the main stages of both TEDMED and TEDx Anchorage. He is currently a guest faculty member with The Global Arts in Medicine Fellowship, where he advises patient artists and art therapists on developing art and medicine programs worldwide.
His new book, The Room Sinatra Died In, and Other Medically Adjacent Stories, is being incorporated into the medical humanities and narrative medicine programs of several medical schools.
Theodore’s recent video projects highlight stories of survival through interviews with patient artists, blind architects, and public figures, including General Michael Hayden, former head of the CIA and NSA, who is currently recovering from aphasia. His newest interview series focuses on survivors of the war in Gaza.
Theodore’s work seeks to improve physician-patient communication while also creating platforms for patients to tell their own stories and be heard. Through exhibitions, interviews, films, and the powerful narratives behind the Scarred for Life series, he opens conversations about pain, disfigurement, survival, and what it means to live fully with chronic illness. His work promotes empathy not only within medical education, but also among the broader public by giving voice to experiences that are often overlooked.
His art has been exhibited internationally in museums, hospitals, and galleries, and his work has been featured by NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and USA Today. His presentations reveal how a life shaped by illness can also become a catalyst for creativity, compassion, and connection.
In addition to his visual work, Theodore is a writer, illustrator, and filmmaker. His books include Shrink Yourself: The Complete Do-It-Yourself Book of Freudian Psychoanalysis, The Butt Hello – And Other Reasons My Cats Drive Me Crazy, Cats Around the World, Good Things You Can Learn from a Bad Relationship, and Scarred for Life. His award-winning documentary, King of Dinoland, tells the story of outsider artist Abe DeLacerda. Sheepdogs, a documentary about Theodore’s work with military veterans, is currently on the festival circuit.
[email protected]
www.TedMeyer.com • www.ArtandMed.com • Instagram: @TedMeyerArt