About

It all started when…

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 her brain.

In 2014 she founded her own surface pattern design label, ‘Charcot’, named after Jean Martin Charcot who first discovered MS in 1868.
She has leased MS inspired prints around the world, represented UNESCO City of Design Dundee at the first Design Week in Shenzhen, China at the same time as being announced as the first Design Champion for Scotland’s first Design Museum, V&A Dundee in 2017. Stevens has also worked closely with the MS Society over the years, by sharing her story at public speaking events and as a Wellbeing Facilitator during lockdown.

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 the visual arts, drawing what she envisions is happening inside her body and what symptoms she can experience daily. This new slower and considered practice has enabled her to realise what she wants to show and say within her work to raise awareness and open up a dialogue about invisible illness, while she works through her own lived experience of Multiple Sclerosis.