‘Neuro Blooms’ shines a light on neurodiversity

Art exhibition Neuro Blooms paints a picture of how different brains work — specifically those of people living with specific mental health conditions. Created by artist Leslie Holt, each “bloom” applies vivid color to PET scans to represent the brain activity of people experiencing different mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety and schizophrenia.

The exhibition, which opened in October at Red Chair Studios and on the windows of businesses along Cherokee Street in St. Louis, inspired Bonite “Bo” Owen, a graduate student at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

“The darker the color — like the black, the blue and the greens — is more of a low activity in the brain. And when you get to the reds and yellows, yellow is your high activity,” said Owen. “And I was like, this is really interesting.”

Owen is studying to be an art therapist, and she said that learning more about how the brain works is part of being an art therapist.