Migraine Art

The Migraine Art Concept

Although its roots may be traced back to 19th century neurology, it was not until the inspiring example of an art teacher’s pictorial representations of her migraine attacks, that the Migraine Art concept was developed by Derek Robinson in the 1970s to serve as the basis of four National Migraine Art Competitions and similar contests held in the UK and the United States, the results of which were presented to the public in a number of exhibitions and publications in both the lay and medical press. [more]

Migraine and Literature

This section does not only provide literary descriptions of migraine experiences from past and contemporary poets, story writers or novelists, but also offers examples of migraine-related narratives from Usenet Newsgroups, electronic diaries (“blogs”) and other sources encountered in the Internet, including the self-observations of scientists such as Marvin, Oliver Sacks and others. Your contributions are welcome, too! Comments on these selected texts address the issues of metaphors of migraine, migraine and creativeness, and migraine aura and spiritual experience.

Migraine and Music

Finally, it is known that some famous musicians have suffered from migraines − from classical composer Gustav Mahler, over King of Rock’n’Roll Elvis Presley, and Jeff Tweedy, singer/songwriter from the alternative country band Wilco, to Alwa Glebe the German “dark chanteuse”, to mention just a few. Did the composers' and performers’ migraines influence their art?