Marjorie’s 15 Minutes

A few months ago, Jess Apple asked if I’d be interested in creating a t-shirt design for a fundraiser that would support Diabetes Media Foundation and A Sweet Life. Of course I was on board.

Immediately I thought of imagery related to meters, test strips, and pumps, oh my!

Jess had a different vision. One that included a dog.

At first I was confused. A dog? Diabetes? Huh? (Plus I’m a cat person.)

I soon learned that the dog Jess had in mind wasn’t any old dog. It was a canine hero named Marjorie.

By now you’ve probably read about Frederick Banting and Charles Best. Or maybe you vaguely remember hearing their names in your middle school science class. They discovered insulin. What you may not know is that several dogs were used in their experiments, which led to the discovery of that very precious commodity. Marjorie was one of them.

Jess wanted to give Marjorie the accolade she deserves. After learning about Marjorie, I couldn’t have agreed more. I was sorry that I had never heard of her before. Especially since she’s made such a big difference in my life.

I did some research and found just a handful of photos of Marjorie. I wanted her to stand out, so I selected the photo with the highest contrast and based my design on that.

After a few sketches, I painted the Marjorie design with black and white paint, and signature diabetes blue for her collar. I e-mailed the design to an artist friend of mine who is also a dog person. I wanted her to fact check my artwork and make sure it was truly dog like.

I finished my painting by adding a vial of insulin to Marjorie’s collar. It’s small and humble, just like Marjorie.

The original Marjorie painting was donated to Jess, Mike, and Diabetes Media Foundation. I thought it was fitting because Marjorie helped people with diabetes live… and A Sweet Life helps people with diabetes live well.

This is Marjorie’s moment. Her 15 minutes of fame. Let’s honor her and donate to an amazing organization.

Here’s your chance to rock the Marjorie t-shirt: The fundraiser is up through Friday, October 17^th. Show Me Your Shirt!