An Illustration Advocating Science-Based Medicine

We were super intrigued when we got this commission order in from Danny, as it is not every day that we are asked to facilitate commissions that do not involve fan art, friends, pets, and family members. This symbolic piece, inspired by the statue shown above, came out great, right?

Lorenzo Sabia did the art. You can commission a design or illustration of your own from him by visiting his commission page.

Backstory Behind the Piece – Q&A with Danny

ArtCorgi (AC): We understand this illustration will be printed on shirts. May we ask what they are for?

Danny (D): The shirts are for a student group I run at the University of Utah. It is the Society for Science-Based Medicine. We are a group of like minded individuals that promote science-based medicine and oppose pseudoscience in health care.

AC: Your reference images and direction for this piece pulled from fascinating sources and the piece features some nifty symbolism. What inspired you to commission an illustration featuring a greek god and a snake oil salesman in particular?

D: I came up with the idea for the illustration after seeing similar artwork featuring the Greek god Asclepius holding off Death (the person). Asclepius was the god of medicine in ancient Greek religion so I thought that he would make a good representation of science in the artwork. I decided to use a snake oil salesmen because I think that snake oil salesmen are a great representation of everything we (the student group) oppose.

AC: What advice would you give to someone who is commissioning art for the first time?

D: I had a great experience getting my artwork commissioned by ArtCorgi. If you have something specific in mind, I think it is important to give the artist a clear idea of what you want from the beginning so that you don’t have to make any changes down the road. I really like that I was able to see a draft of the art work before it was completed.