About the Cover Artist: Le Bon, La Brute, Et Le Truand by JJ Ignatius Brennan

The cover art for this month’s issue of Practical Neurology was created by JJ Ignatius Brennan, an Irish painter and sculptor based in the United Kingdom and France. Born in 1949, Brennan has experienced migraine attacks since he was age 11. By early adulthood, these acute migraine attacks occurred weekly, defined by pulsing, unilateral pain and accompanied by nausea, photosensitivity, sensory manifestations, visual disturbances, and aura. An article by Podoll and Robinson¹ published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, details the sometimes triangular or zigzagging, sometimes rounded or cloud-like shapes that would enter and drift across Brennan’s visual field when he experienced a migraine. At times, Brennan’s migraine attacks were associated with the deformation or mosaic-like abstraction of physical objects, including human bodies.

Brennan attended the Slade School of Fine Art at University College London, one of the most prestigious art schools in the United Kingdom, and began a career as a working artist and lecturer. In 1990, he dedicated himself to creating art full time and developed an international reputation, having received numerous artistic prizes, including the fourth UK national Migraine Art competition. In 2013, Brennan’s art was featured at the AXNS Collective’s Affecting Perception: Art and Neuroscience exhibition, alongside fellow Practical Neurology cover artist Jon Sarkin.

Migraine is a source of creative inspiration for Brennan. Floating geometric designs are a recurring feature in his work, invoking the same types of shapes seen during his migraine attacks. In Podoll and Robinsin¹, Brennan explains, “Clouds, zigzags, and other imagery are part of my own personal visual vocabulary, but which certainly has come out of migraine experiences.”

More details about Brennan’s artwork can be found on his blog, https://jjignatiusbrennan.blogspot.com, and he shares his pieces on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/jjignatiusbrennan.