Interview with Leonie Schon

Discussion with Leonie Schön- Histopathologist and Artist

 

Leonie Schön is a histopathologist and artist from Germany who came to our attention here at PathSoc through her art-based Instagram page. Her best-known works are vivid watercolours displaying a wide range of histology slides. Leonie’s website and brand “Lamellipodium“ showcases her work, which is available as prints, calendars and scrunchies.

I had the opportunity to chat to Leonie about her work and her life as a Pathologist in Germany. Below is a transcript of the interview which I thought would be an interesting portrait of the artist...

1. Can you tell us about your journey to becoming a histopathologist?
Yes of course! I studied Medicine in Germany, graduated at the end of 2019, and started my residency in pathology. In Germany med school is six years long: we have two years of preclinical training, three years of clinical education and end with one year of working full-time in the hospital rotating in several disciplines. I had decided that I wanted to go into pathology in my second clinical year simply because I was just so fascinated by the field, and I couldn’t see myself anywhere else.

2. How did you develop an interest in creating art based on histology slides?
The idea to paint slides came to me when I was still in school and predates my time in med school. I did an internship in a laboratory and got to see several blood smears there. That’s when the idea sparked first, and it came back to me again when we learned histology in med school. I had some trouble finding the right technique that allowed me to capture the details in the way I wanted to. After graduating I had enough time and patience to figure out my painting style for histology and pathology.

3. How do you select the specific histology slides to use as a basis for your art? Are there particular tissues or conditions that inspire you more than others?
This varies from time to time, sometimes it’s the slide first or a staining that is just beautiful, and sometimes I go looking for slides and compose something. I have a certain affinity for cartilage, it’s just so pretty. On the other hand, there are some tissues that I don’t enjoy painting that much - like lymphatic tissues.

4. Can you walk us through your creative process? How do you start a new piece, and what considerations do you take into account during the artistic transformation of histology slides?
I usually start by gathering several images and revising also the histology/pathology. I do not sketch entire paintings but sometimes certain structures when I need to figure out how to work on layers correctly or when I want to figure out the composition.

I sometimes have trouble deciding for the right amount of magnification and end up painting something too close or too far out. It has happened several times that I had to abandon a painting halfway through because of this. I mainly work with watercolors and my painting process is mostly controlled by drying times. With watercolors, you usually work from working from light to dark and I end my paintings with the darkest details which are usually the nuclei.

5. How long does each piece take to complete on average?
This highly depends on the subject and size of the painting. For an A4-sized painting, it varies between 3 hours when I work on something less dense like lung tissue, and about 8 hours for a painting showing lymphatic tissue. I think the longest I worked on one painting was around 20 hours.

6. You sell a wide range of products based on your work – what inspired you to start selling calendars and making scrunchies?
I guess that stems from me having a soft spot for stationery myself. I also find repeating patterns intriguing and just started to play with some ideas to see if people would like it. And they did! I think it’s wonderful to share my artwork this way. I love providing little surprises for dedicated healthcare workers in the field and making their days just a little bit more colourful.

7. Have you encountered any ethical considerations in creating art based on medical specimens?
It is always in the back of my mind, especially when I paint pathologies. But I try to really grasp the idea of a tissue and a disease and then work from that and not copy individual slides. There have been a range of mostly positive reactions, even with the more complicated paintings showing deadly diseases. Art has a history of showing death and pain. I think mine simply does it at a different magnification.

8. How do you see your art contributing to the broader understanding of histopathology and medical science? Do you aim to communicate specific messages or raise awareness through your artwork?
I like to think that my artwork shows some of the beauty I and others see when looking through a microscope. I get to tell a lot of people outside of medicine about my work like this (and explain the difference between surgical and forensics at least once a week). I hope to raise interest in the importance of our work for people in and outside of medicine. I know of a handful of young residents who reached out and told me they gave the residency a thought because of my artwork, which I think is wonderful! But I am not painting on a specific agenda.

9. Are there new directions or projects you're excited to explore in the coming months/years?
At the moment I am working on another series together with a veterinary pathologist. I love this kind of cooperation to broaden my horizon. Additionally, I am exploring new painting methods and thinking about increasing the size of my work, bringing it onto canvas. I also would love to paint some plant histology at some point.

10. What is your favourite personal piece from your collection?

My personal favourite is a painting from last year which shows cartilage stained with a beautiful pentachrome stain by Kate Murphy (@histoqueenofhearts).

11. Can you tell us what you do on an average day as a pathology resident in Germany?
My average day consists of a mixture of grossing and cases. In the morning I look at a couple of cases which I later discuss with an attending. I usually get to see a lot of the cases I have seen at grossing, which is great for learning. After that, I usually spend my time in the afternoon on the grossing shift. This schedule changes from time to time when we have an autopsy case or a huge caseload in the lab.

12. What advice would you give to medical students wanting to do pathology as a career?
Spend some time in a pathology lab! It will be worth your while even if you don’t decide to go into pathology since the field and the actual work that goes into the report is usually not well represented in med school, if at all. Pathology is intense in a different way than other areas but also very rewarding and interesting. You get to take care of patients on an entirely new level – and for me, it ticks all the right boxes. And if you are already set on pathology I recommend keeping an open mind in med school and learning as much about the practical procedures, especially of the surgical disciplines.

I would like to thank Leonie for taking the time to chat to me, and for agreeing to be featured in the blog area of the Pathological Society of Great Britain’s Undergraduate Network.

You can visit Leonie’s Website at lamellipodiumart.com and her Instagram @lamellipodium

Written for the Pathological Society of Great Britain by Jude Brennan-Calland