no woman is an island

Portrait of Täis

It’s January when Alex contacts me:  I was wondering if you’d be interested and if you have the time to talk about a small painting for Taïs? Her birthday is coming up in March. I want to gift her something really unique that she has a relation to.

Vienna and Croatia. #Map

He tells me about Täis’s work in behavioral health and he shares a few of her interests. I also learn about Alex and how he experiences her and their family.

He notes:

Helping children and teenagers overcome depression and anxiety.
Her role is to lead families through the process of dealing with insurance, and admitting their child to the several treatment centers in different states. Often the families are under much emotional pressure and the children have been going through very hard times, and she is great at helping.
Has undergone a very powerful professional growth in the last two years.
Developing into being a good team leader, integrator, and is valued by her team members.

He continues..

Very organized and conscientious.
Always striving to do the right thing.
Bonds with her families through her personality, honesty, and openness.
Driven by, and is great at setting up systems and processes for herself and for others.

And her interests:

The science of the human brain. (Alex, You’ve come to the right person!)
(Inter)Connection of neurotransmitters/hormones and moods
Gestalt psychotherapy.
Listening to podcasts and audio books about personal and professional development, psychology, therapy.

Alex continues, Before she started working and while we were still in Vienna, the best description of her was that of a “social butterfly”. She had many good friends and was always there for everyone.
The “being there” part of her personality has not changed, but she has gone through many personal and professional changes – becoming a wonderful and emotionally involved mom, establishing herself as a professional in her field and being really successful at it in a short time, and managing the two big parts of her life very effectively. 

Alex, would you be interested in a brain study of Taïs? I explain details, size and materials. He likes the idea!

And more about Tais…

…Great and emphatic listener
Clear communicator
Positive nature, Optimistic, Outgoing
Patient
Organized…

Wonderful mom, very loving, family oriented, and emotionally invested
Loves spending time with us, and loves our son Adrian

Alex shares more personal details: Adrian’s name works and sounds the same in all three languages of our family: German, English, and Croatian. It’s also a direct reference to the Adriatic Sea, where I grew up and Taïs and I spent a lot of time together

Collage includes Vienna (where I know Tais lived), Croatia (where Alex lived) and their Adriatic Sea.

One more note…
Her name, Taïs, comes from Greek and means beautiful or goddess. Even more interesting is the fact that Thaïs was a famous Greek companion/concubine who accompanied Alexander the Great on his campaigns. 

Täis, Happy Birthday to you, smart, conscientious and beautiful woman!

Then and Now

Thank you again, Alex! #thoughtful #luckyman

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The blog posts titled No Woman is an Island acknowledge the people and/or organizations who support me and the work I do.

©2021 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ

no woman is an island

August 2016
Joe: I took a photo of your work last year at the Sky Harbor exhibit. May I ask your permission to use the artwork for my class on evolution and medicine at the University of New Mexico and on the blog that I use for the class: EvolutionMedicine.com?

Me: Thank you for asking. I received my MFA at NMSU…I have great affinity for New Mexico.

Portrait of Sara, Head in Profile, Arms Akimbo (detail)

February 2018
Joe: I’m in Tempe today through Saturday. I hope to visit the UofA Med school gallery while I am here. Are you available tomorrow around noon? Or Saturday?

Saturday afternoon, almost 1-1/2 years after the initial email – I meet Joe (and his mom!) at the Biomedical Campus in downtown Phoenix.

Joe is a practicing emergency physician and teaches at University of New Mexico Department of Emergency Medicine. He is also program chair for the International Society for Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health. He wants to see my work and he wants to discuss using some of my compositions on the organization’s website. He invites me to attend their annual meeting this August in (beautiful) Park City, Utah. I appreciate the opportunity (curiosity stirred) but I cannot commit to the latter. Spending the last month working on applications for exhibition opportunities including a summer artist residency, I feel too many unknowns to set the plan in motion. He understands.

The three of us walk the exhibit and eventually come to Portrait of Sara ↑. At the time I work on the study, I explain as I point to the upper right corner of the composition, I learn about the cranial nerves. The vagus nerve, in particular, catches my attention because it is also known as the wandering nerve.

Joe’s face registers recognition and I glimpse excitement. I am in the habit of explaining the details of my work to people but perhaps in a medical education environment, I don’t need to explain so much. It is at this point that Joe brings up the microbiome. I’ve heard of the brain-gut connect, I say. He nods and clarifies gut-brain axis. I think about what I understand… It relates to the vagus nerve, yes? By the time the afternoon is over, I know the human microbiome is of great interest to him.

We talk about a few things including evolution medicine. But what stands out is when Joe connects body and environment.  I don’t write them down so I can’t quote his words, basically he brings up the construction happening across the valley.  What is occurring here, apartment building on top of apartment building – not a good thing for our microbiome. Being in nature and with animals, including living with our pets (the natural world) – supports the human microbiome.

We are a system of connecting parts.

Notes on the Complexity of the Brain, Mixed media and collage on paper, 8×8″

We sit at a table across from two of my small mixed-media portraits (studies of the brain). Joe says… I want that one. You do?!  He appreciates the techie quality. I nod…those are motherboard elements.

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To know more about what Joe Alcock teaches visit→ EvolutionMedicine.com.
And → @JoeAlcockMD #tweets #microbiome and #evolution. And #phage.
When they refer to it (phage) on Science Friday (like they did this last week) – I enjoy knowing what it means! Information takes hold in small ways. 

Thank you so much Joe.

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The blog posts titled No Woman is an Island acknowledge the people and/or organizations who support me and the work I do.

On a side note:
Did you know today is Day 3 of Brain Awareness Week. It is!
Notified that I did receive the artist residency, this summer I will spend 12 weeks at the Tempe Center for the Arts. I plan to study and draw the human brain.

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