Artist residency at the NYU School of Medicine
In 2008 I became Artist in Residence in the Master Scholars Medical Humanism Program at the NYU School of Medicine: a wonderful opportunity for learning, dialogue and exchange of perspectives between the worlds of art and medicine.
Now, as I continue teaching anatomy drawing to med students, observing dissections, and working on my own drawings in the Anatomy Lab or with my scans in the 3D Imaging Lab, I keep looking for ways to open up and share my artistic process with the medical school community.
One way to do that is via the web, and I will be posting new drawings on this website as I create them, along with the medical images used in their making, and a journal-like text. That material will then be collected into a new artist’s book.
A growing movement in many medical schools and institutions is encouraging a more compassionate and humanistic attitude toward patients and recognizes the value in listening to their voices – in part through the expressive power of literature, music, and the visual arts. This artist residency, one of the first ever at a medical school, has given me a greater voice in this conversation, and more opportunities to connect with the community of artists, patients, people with disabilities or unusual anatomies, and advocates for the medical humanities, who share these goals.
My work speaks to the uniqueness and individuality of each human body, and the great range of anatomical differences within the continuum of ‘normal.’