no woman is an island

I always enjoy talking with Lettie. She laughs easily and is generous with her smile. Our recent  conversations have been about my work. She asks about my exhibition at the Tucson Museum of Art. She seems interested in seeing it. If you’re going to be in Arizona, I tell her, this really is the best time of the year. She asks specifically about brain related art work. As a matter of fact Lettie, my most recent installation includes a series of brain related, smaller works.

Eventually she tells me about one of her clients, Dr. Akram Mahmoud. Actually, she talks about his walls. They’re empty, she notes. Lettie is a real estate agent in El Paso and she helped the neurosurgeon find his beautiful home.

Lettie is also a long-time, family friend. We like to think of her as the adopted sister. I send her images of work, along with information, of several brain-related paintings that are in my studio. I want her to get a sense of their color and size.

Do you have any smaller ones? He also has an office, she says. I repeat myself, In Tucson…my solo…

One morning, she calls, wondering when I might be coming to El Paso. Interesting timing as my husband and I were scheduled to fly in that week. Can you bring some of the available paintings? We’re communicating via text, she can’t hear me laugh. The paintings she’s wanting me to bring are on stretcher bars and they are not that small. I was once told, some airplanes have a space for carry-on of painting-like packages. Still, I’m not exactly sure I can bring any large paintings but I do tell her I can take them off their bars, roll and tube them, if she’s serious. Explain, she says, you’re speaking another language.

After a few more conversations, she is interested in seeing two works and wouldn’t you know it, the airlines cancel our flights. I box up 2 paintings and my husband and I make the drive from Phoenix to El Paso. A few days later, on a Friday morning, I deliver artwork to Dr. Mahmoud’s beautiful home in the Franklin Mountains.

Truthfully, I’m not sure he needs any art, the view from his living room ↑ is stunning. He has a active pup so I set the paintings on the mantel, knowing he will see them as he enters that evening.

As Lettie and I continue our conversation, I learn Dr. Mahmoud is also an Osteopath. I’m further impressed. Eventually, a painting is chosen. In Lettie’s usual nature, she is pleased to be helping out two friends.

Bottom of the Top, X Marks the Spot – Optic Chiasm, Casein, Egg Tempera, Gesso, Ink, Micaceous Iron Oxide on Canvas, 48 x 36”

Thank you, Lettie. This has been a unique transaction. You move with ease and patience, and as always, you’re thoughtful.

Thank you, Dr. Mahmoud. Your home is lovely. Enjoy the artwork!

Lettie Intebi Velasco is a realtor and a life long resident of El Paso. We’ve known each other since our college days. Dr. Akram Mahmoud DO is a Neurosurgery Specialist in El Paso, TX.

#YourBeautifulBrain

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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.

©2023 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ

no woman is an island

Note for today:
Marco, by the time you read this, know it’s been in the planning for a good while.  You have a thoughtful sister. Now that I think of it, you have lots of thoughtful sisters.
Here is to your continued health and wellness!

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Sylvia, contacted me late October, Hi Monica. I love your work and wanted to know if you have a sketch of the brain. I would like to purchase one for my brother. 

#YourBeautifulBrain

I’d received news in early October, about Marco, whom I’ve known since childhood. We lived in the same neighborhood and attended the same grade school and high school. Our families have known each other for many years. The day before Marco was to have surgery, I was in El Paso and saw Danny and Eddie, also childhood friends. They told me Marco would be having brain surgery. Danny was optimistic Marco would fare well.

Sylvia explained Marco had surgery to remove a tumor from his frontal lobe. She showed me photos of Marco, post surgery, and told me he was doing well. I appreciated also seeing some of his sketches that were insightful of his struggle.

Sylvia picked this casein and gesso on paper drawing, from several I showed her.  She ends our conversation with, My brother will love receiving work by you. Thank you, Sylvia, I am touched that you wanted to send one of my brain studies to Marco.

Dear Marco, I wish you only the very best in your continued healing. (I think we might be due for a HF class reunion at some point soon.)  My best to all of the family. Enjoy your visit with Sylvia and enjoy the artwork!

#UrBeautifulBrain #NoManIsAnIsland

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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.

©2023 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ

no woman is an island

It’s early December when I receive this email from Julie:
By any chance do you have any small works of just the brain? My sister is looking for a present for her son (my nephew) who is a neuro surgeon and I wanted to tell her about your work. If you had a small drawing of a brain, send me an image and the price and I’ll forward it on to her. Thanks!  Happy holidays! -Julie

You could guess things played out well. As I prepare to write, I ask Julie for story.

The way it came down, Julie explains, was that my sister asked in passing, Do you know by any chance an artist who paints or draws images of the brain? We want to give our son (Steven) and his wife Mary (also a surgeon) a gift that would be near to his practice (a neurosurgeon). 

Julie’s reply: Boy do I have an artist for you, and I just so happen to be organizing a solo exhibition of her work at TMA! Her work is wonderful and I think I saw a few brain images when I visited there recently. 

Julie Sasse is Chief Curator at Tucson Museum of Art. She’d made a studio visit in early November. We were going over the artwork for my upcoming September exhibition, in the museum’s → Kasser Family Wing of Latin American Art.  Wendy Carr, is Julie’s sister.

Julie continues, I really like my nephew (and his wife!). He and I went on a three-week trip to Chile the summer before he entered med school so we have a special bond—went to Easter Island as well. What a great trip that was. He is so smart and I love to hear about the lives he has saved. 

Friday, I send 4 images, along with the information she’s requested. Monday, Julie tells me to hold one particular study. Tuesday I speak with Wendy.

I enjoy hearing about her son, Dr. Steven Carr, MD., an Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. Wendy notes Steven’s creative side, He enjoys working with his hands, wood in particular. He made a toy box and a rocking horse for his son as well as a train set and a trolley car.

I tell her about an exhibition of my work at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. I recall how I especially appreciated the medical students and faculty talk about my work and point out the details. I didn’t say much, mostly I listened (and learned!).

Here ↓ is the small brain study Julie asked me to hold. I paid extra attention to details with this image. And I was using mylar for the first time. I discovered both graphite and casein paint love a mylar surface! It’s a favorite material and I continue to use it.

 Sagittal View of the Brain
Casein, Graphite Ink on Mylar
10×13″

The brain and its cells have become the focal point of many of my works since my father’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease. I’ve had time and opportunity to learn about the brain, including visiting the brain bank, in Sun City, AZ.

This artwork showed with phICA, in a container space in downtown Phoenix as well as the University of Arizona Medical School, also in downtown Phoenix.

Now it’s yours, Steven and Mary! This gift of art is in recognition of becoming a Board Certified Neurosurgeon, Steven. Congratulations to you.

Wendy and David, thank you so much. I’d like to extend a personal invitation to all of you. Should you be in Tucson, come and join us for the opening of my solo exhibition, on September 1st! Amongst other things, I plan to have a wall of brain anatomy, including microanatomy study, on display.
#UrBeautifulBrain

Thanks again, Julie!

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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.

©2022 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ

circle of willis / blood vessels of the brain

I’ve wanted to draw the Circle of Willis ever since I heard the name of this area of the brain.

Friday, I got going on what I thought was going to be a quick study. One thing led to another and I ended up with a network of the brain’s blood vessels. #lovelylinework

This weekend I painted the study.

Initially the composition was to be black and white (like an MRI). I got out my gesso, both the black and the white, 2 various shades of cadmium red, and then out came the gold ink. I brought gold in because as I drew out details and thought about the brain and it’s blood supply, I worked in wonder of life processes.

I recalled a conversation with my father, who years ago, suggested I stay away from using gold to indicate the precious or the sacred. He thought it too easy a solution. I agreed with him then and maybe sometimes, I still agree with him today.

Circle of Willis: Circle comes from the Latin circulus, diminutive of circus ( a little ring!). Latin circus relates to Greek kirkos, circle or ring. The Circle of Willis is named after Thomas Willis, father of neurology. The area, located at the base of the brain, supplies oxygenated blood to over 80% of the cerebrum. (It’s not the focal point here, but it is the starting point.)

Dear dad, about the the gold ink…It came in at the very end, after a lot of work and a lot of thought. Nothing easy about it. It’s so subtle, you could miss it if I hadn’t said anything about it.
#urbeautifulbrain #circleofwillis #life

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©2021 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ

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

matter and memory

“He who installs himself in becoming sees in duration the very life of things, the fundamental reality.”

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I begin this study of my father in 2015. The work first exhibits in 2017, at the University of Arizona, School of Medicine, in downtown Phoenix. And it shows again in the summer of 2018, for an art exhibition/summer artist residency, at the Tempe Center for the Arts.

This week I find myself adding 3 new details to the composition. Next time it shows, it will be a little different. #NothingInStasis

When I start this work, dad is experiencing changes in his health. He takes a fall and because he describes how he tucks and rolls, I don’t worry too much. (Apparently he learned to tuck and roll while playing high-school football. I had no idea dad played football!)

Another fall causes my father to stop his daily swimming practice. Something feels different after this one. (In my childhood, dad was a summer lifeguard. He enjoyed swimming for as long as I can remember. My siblings and I still share memories of our summers at the pool.) Dad never returns to swimming.

Today, I better understand how changes in one’s health can signal changes in one’s brain. As covered in previous posts, dad is eventually diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD).

Detail of some organs of balance in the composition.

Considering my father didn’t care to be photographed, he was open and easy with all the prep work necessary for this artwork. Frankly, he was much more comfortable than I, with the whole process. I remember him smiling for all the shots. If you knew my dad, he didn’t usually smile for photographs (he made faces). I sensed his respect for my work and I suspect he enjoyed being a part of it.

I add a coronavirus to the composition. Dad tested positive though remained asymptomatic until he tested negative.

So…
Dad left the planet last August. The medical examiner determined cause of death as Alzheimer’s Disease. And while there is truth to this, I think the death certificate should also note some complications ↑ due to Covid-19.

This week I found a book my father gifted me, titled Matter and Memory, by Henri Bergson.  Dad, always the avid reader, was a thinker and true educator. He particularly enjoyed talking philosophy. (It’s a complicated read. I have yet to finish it.)

Looking back, I recall the look on dad’s face when he saw the title of my first solo exhibit, in 1998, was élan vital (a phrase coined by Bergson in 1907). He was pleasantly surprised and though I should not have been, I was surprised he knew Bergson’s writing (Of course he did!). We enjoyed conversation that weekend of the opening, breaking down impulse, current, vital force, vital impetus…etc.

One of my last memories includes time with my father last Christmas (pre-pandemic). I bought him a small puzzle of the United States (For a short time in his life, he taught history).

Dad, where is Texas?
He points, Right here.
Put it in its place.
What’s to the west of Texas?
New Mexico! You lived there!
Yes, I did! Where’s New Mexico? He picks up the piece.
Where does it go? He points.
Fit it in dad. 

We move through the puzzle, one state at a time, both of us enjoying the process. When we are done, he’s happy and tired.

And 2 more additions to the study:
During my summer residency (back in 2018), I learn mitochondrial dysfunction appears to be a trigger for AD. I consider adding one. Yesterday, I paint this powerhouse of the cell into the composition.

These days, I’m learning about neurotransmitters. I learn about acetylcholine and cholinergic neurons ↓ and their connection to AD and add what I believe will be the final detail.

…My father left the planet in early August, ten days before my birthday. He lived a full and happy life. He was curious, thoughtful.

Dad, you are one cool guy! #UrBeautifulBrain

Still and curious. Continuing to learn.

#ProcessPhilosophy #NothingInStasis
#Motion #Change #Evolution
#VitalForce #CreativePrinciple

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©2021 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ

aaron in profile

Michelle enjoys describing Aaron (Re: Aaronisms), sharing the good and fun, the solid and creative.
I take a highlighter, pulling some details to compose this portrait/brain study.

Manager at SRP / Load research. 
Aaron loves statistics, numbers and spread sheets.
(I think: [Electrical] Power. Structure. Coordinate. Organizing the disorganized.)

Mellow and methodical. Business and economics.
Sarcastic, patient and loving.
Fantastic dad!
Baseball and basketball. Golfer and jogger.
(I think: Balanced)

Loves classic rock. Remembers song lyrics, band info and music trivia (like no one else!) He learned to play guitar and base guitar as an adult and was in a garage band.
(Ahhh, music!! Creativity connecting numbers and structure.)

I isolate numbers, music, movement and the electrical…

 

I make connections to detail and color another beautiful brain.

• Prefrontal cortex – expectation and fulfillment ( in work and in play).
• Motor Cortex – Tap, tap tap, bring on the dancing and support of athletic nature.
• Sensory Cortex – Tactile. Feedback. Feel and know those guitar strings (And maybe the band members and audience – but I speculate).
• Auditory Cortex – Perception and analysis. Processing tone, sound, chords and maybe all those numbers!
• Visual Cortex  – Look, see, read the music. Observation in general includes physical movement and working a spread sheet.
• Cerebellum –  E-motion/music/movement.  Activity!

Portrait of Aaron, Mixed media collage on paper

Aaron, I also hear you’re a hard worker who is dedicated to your family.
#BeautifulBrain #GoodMan #Music #Numbers

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#NoWomanIsAnIsland
Thank you Michelle! Thank you Aaron!

→ Portrait of Michelle

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©2020 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ

a visually driven post

I wanted the light to be the revelation. It has to do with what we value. I want people to treasure light. – James Turrell

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Eye-balls, they’re weird and wonderful, these organs that house vision. I like the form and shape, the simplicity and complexity. And based on many a conversation, I know others enjoy them too.
#thevisual

I didn’t expect to revisit the eye. But I’m looking at the brain and they are one….

Cool fact: Your eyes are the part of your brain that sit outside your skull. Their primary job is to inform you (your brain) through signal, when to wake up and when to sleep.
#sunrisedetectors #sunsetdetectors

At the back of each eye-ball are a layer of various cells. The thin layer ↓ called the retina, is made up of neurons that sense patterns of light carried by photons. This patten travels via the optic nerve, to your brain.
#lightwaves #transduction #electricalsignals #nervousimpulses #neuralsignals

Neural Cells of the Retina

Vision is your ability to detect light patterns.
#electromagneticwaves #nanometers #electromagneticspectrum #wavelengths

Your eye(s) and brain communicate via your optic nerve(s). A conversation between them could go something like this…

Eyes to Brain: I admire the color blue! Do you?
Brain: Yes! Blue light wakes me right up! I also appreciate blue light as it goes darker. And, I enjoy yellow and orange light as it gets brighter too.
Eyes: All of this. Yes!

Basically they’d be talking sunrise and sunset, alertness and sleep. The brain might  continue and clarify how light affects cortisol, heart-rate and hormones.

Everything really starts in the eye. The eye sheds light on the brain which activates all the rest of the cells (every single cell!) in your body.
#circadianclock #circannualclock #entrainable #everysinglecellinyourbody

postscript:  all my posts are visually driven

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©2020 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ

medulla oblongata

This last week, in the studio, I layout another brain (inferior view) including brainstem and cerebellum. Today I add cranial nerves.

I think about Lester, a teacher.

Looking for my notes of his exact words, I don’t find them. Though I can recall the tone and pace as he said…Spirit enters the body at the medulla (pause) oblongata.

I’ve drawn the brain stem so many times in the last few years and only now do I feel the need to pinpoint the medulla. One could think I’d know…because it’s the area where the tenth cranial nerve, aka, the vagus nerve, exits the brain. The vagus nerve, not only the longest nerve of the autonomic nervous system and hence called the wandering nerve, is a favorite.

The medulla oblongata is the lower half of the brain stem connecting to the spinal cord.
I can talk science…but won’t. I can talk life-force energy…not now. Keeping it simple.

Physical body. Subtle body.
Connect.
All the deep breaths and the stillness that comes with them.
Making sense. 

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©2020 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ

arbor vitae

Today, a long post in the making. Sometimes thinking too much about something is moving away from it.

look deep
into the cerebellum
the white matter
in the little brain
myelinated axons
sensory
motor
intricate
see it
tree-of-life
arbor vitae

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©2020 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ

motor and sensory cortical homunculus

Last June, I studied and drew out a small image of the motor and sensory cortical homunculus.  I’ve wanted to come back to it.

I organize materials and prep a 42×42″ canvas this weekend (now I wish I’d gone bigger).

Consider the somatosensory homunculus a neurological layout, mapping areas within the brain that process the various parts of your entire body. Isn’t the human brain and all that it coordinates (you and me) incredible?!!

I touch my head trying to locate the exact spot where my hands connect while picking up my brush and painting detail. The deep center of the sensory strips come to mind as I run. And while doing Nadi shodhana (alternate nostril breathing) in Yoga class, I trust I find balance within and without the body (internal left side of the brain influences external right side of the body, while internal right side influences external left).

The human brain is designed for movement, thought to action…

Cortical Homunculus – in process

I am brain and body.
I am sender and receiver.
I am neuron and synapse.
I am inside and outside.
Moving in space and standing still.
I am.

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I see your beautiful brain…

© All Rights Reserved by Monica Aissa Martinez

present and re-present

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the leading cause of neurodegenerative dementia associated with aging, affects over 5 million adults in the United States and is predicted to increase to 16 million affected by 2050. – Alzheimer’s Association 2017 

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Looking at the PET scans  – I recognize his profile. This is my father.

Talking to my sister Mercedes, she reminds me how for years when one of us called out Dad! he’d yell  back, YO SOY EL SEÑOR MARTINEZ! 
I smile. I don’t ask if he still does this.

It’s natural when I make art to think about it as installation. I want some sense of a bigger picture. With this particular work, I imagine a small series of studies and words. Maybe the words are text (as marks) across a wall.

I ask mom, my 4 sisters and brother to jot down thoughts/words about dad, past or present, as I make a small scratchboard series of his PET scans.

Mercedes: His funny sayings – CON UN DIABLO!!

Dad never really cusses in front of us. My guess is this saying is his version of Damn it!

Elisa: He likes to play with words, he always has. Every time we pass a one-way sign or stop at a four-way stop sign he says…”un guey”. “Cuatro gueyes”.

Dad’s humor includes playing with words and the English and Spanish language. 

Elisa: He used to say grocerias for groceries. Now he says, narizona when we get to Arizona Street.

Elisa also sends recordings she’s made of some of their conversation. In one recording she asks dad about his sister Carmen, who died last month at the age of 99.

Elisa: How many years between you and Carmen?
Dad (who is 86): I don’t know, followed by a long pause, she was old enough to scold me.

Mercedes: He liked Gabriel-Garcia Marquez’s, Cien Años de Soledad.  He took us to the Plaza Theater to see 2001: A Space Odyssey when it first came out and Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein at Plaza…Jaws and Star Wars at Cielo Vista. 

I laugh because within minutes of Young Frankenstein starting, I saw in his face he’d  regretted it. Not a kid’s movie dad!

Mercedes: …summers and swimming, Washington Park and Armijo….with all the neighborhood kids.

Dad, for many years was a summer life-guard for the city summer recreation program. He took us to work with him every day, Monday to Friday (lucky mom). And along with us, he often did have many of the neighborhood kids piled into the station wagon.
He swears he taught me to swim. Maybe I didn’t pay attention. His mouth dropped when years later, as an adult, I told him about the afternoon I almost drowned at my best friends house.

Mercedes: He liked Yoga!

This comment brings back my 10-year old self, skipping over him as he holds Cobra Pose.

Mercedes: …candy apple red Alfa Romeo. Guayaberas. He taught me to make Gin and Tonics. He likes to eat :).

Gin and Tonics?!

Analissa’s memory takes her back to high school:  I went to the library to pick a book, I chose One Hundred Years of Solitude by Garcia-Marquez. He read it with me. He went on to read everything by him, took a class on the author and later magical realism. I thought that was cool – he made himself an expert just like that. I once went to play cello for a class he was taking. I forget the class, but I played the same program as Pablo Casals did at the Kennedy White House. I sensed he was proud.

Analissa (younger than the rest of us, never knew dad the lifeguard, but does know dad the swimmer):  I would go swimming with him, since I was a little girl. He taught me to swim. I have specific memories: his cadence and body movement and endurance – his swim bag and goggles, flip-flops and little shampoo bottles. The last time we went swimming I sensed it would be our last time at the pool together. So I stopped and just watched him swim the whole time.

…We once looked up the town he was in, in Germany, on Google Earth. It was exciting for both of us. He had 3 memories: The train station that would take him into town, the ‘biergarten’ where they would drink, and the cathedral where they’d go to church after drinking all night on Saturday, then back to the train station. We found all three of those things, they were still there.
Dad is funny. 

Chacho, my brother, notes John Nichols and the Milagro Beanfield War – When I read it, at Cathedral, he told me it was one of his favorite books.  He would read it at least once a year. He likes Hemingway. When I was reading For Whom the Bell Tolls he would tell me about it. He had the movie on VHS.
His favorite drink is Negra Modelo.
‘El Sapo High’…He says this every time we pass El Paso High School. 

Clearly Dad read a lot and – he suggested I read Cortázar’s Rayuela and also the English translation titled Hopscotch. The book had instructions in it on how to read it. Apparently it bounces from the past to the present. Instructions?! Too complicated dad!
It’s still on my list.

One of my sisters never responded and mom wasn’t sure what to say. She’s in the thick of it with taking care of dad.

As Artist-in-Residence, I focus on dementia and Alzheimer’s this summer.

I sit at my drawing table at the Tempe Center for the Arts, talking to people who come in and share their personal stories about how dementia touches their lives. I’ve connected with professionals on the issue. And last week a chemical engineer visiting the gallery talked to me about President Reagan, who died of Alzheimer’s. He was known to drink a coke a day. This chemical engineer, who spoke 5 languages, told me about a project he took in Japan shortly after graduating and consequently he never drinks out of aluminum cans if he can help it – only bottles for him.

…I know I want these small scratchboards bigger. I admit, this summer it sometimes feels odd to be working with new materials, mixing colors, and laying out ideas.

Raising awareness…my own and yours.

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Tempe, AZ →  Dementia Friendly City
More → The Alzheimers Association
Special TIME Edition June 2018 → The Science of Alzheimers

a brain. new paper. new media.

I spent yesterday afternoon working with different materials – paper and media both. I settle on an a crisp architect paper – and I render this brain. I love the surface.

I need to figure out how to display this small work without framing it. I don’t want to deal with glass and a frame. I could tack it up onto a wall but there has to be other choices –  cleaner choices.

Any suggestions?

a heart and a brain

Today in Yoga we talk about the organ of the heart. I happen to have completed (yet another) small drawing of one. We tend to think of it in connection to love. Meg, the instructor, says in this case it’s connected to happiness. She explained the energy is more about accepting what is – as opposed to wanting to control. I also drew (yet another) brain.

They work together. Or do they?

For some reason I make a connection to Ahimsa. I’ve decided non-violence is a discipline. I’m not sure why I piece this together. But I do.

the brain – the hub of the cns

Men aught to know that from the brain, and from the brain only, arise our pleasures, joys, laughter and jests, as well as our sorrows, pains, griefs and tears. Through it, in particular, we think, see, hear, and distinguish the ugly from the beautiful, the bad from the good, the pleasant from the unpleasant…It is the same thing which makes us mad or delirious, inspires us with dread and fear, whether by night or by day, brings sleeplessness, inopportune mistakes, aimless anxieties, absent-mindedness, and acts that are contrary to habit. These things that we suffer all come from the brain, when it is not healthy, but becomes abnormally hot, cold, moist, or dry, or suffers any other unnatural affection to which it was not accustomed. Madness comes from its moistness. When the brain is abnormally moist, of necessity it moves, and when it moves neither sight nor hearing are still, but we see or hear now one thing and now another, and the tongue speaks in accordance with the things seen and heard on any occassion.

But all the time the brain is still, a man can think properly.

                                              – Hippocrates, 5th century, B.C.

 

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I lose track of time and over work this brain (and my own). I get caught up in its architecture and in reading about it. In the last few years I have drawn more brains than I can say. I understand the brain is protected by the thick bones of the skull, suspended in cerebrospinal fluid, and isolated from the bloodstream by the blood brain barrier.

Yesterday more becomes clear – the brain is the hub of the central nervous system. It’s the control center for all the other organs. It is the CNS! 

It is the Central Nervous System. I feel like I make a great discovery. But I believe I knew this. Somehow isolating parts in the way I did, and working them out … shifts my awareness enough to realize how profound this really is.  I don’t care for this particular image of the brain. It’s part of a larger composition and I will simplify it at some point. But the time-consuming, detailed work allowed me insight. Is that how the (my) brain works? Maybe this time.

Early in the week I drew a spinal column, and naturally I thought about the spinal cord and eventually one thing leads to another …

… I feel like I may never understand the wholeness of us.

My brain needs a rest now.

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These images are part of my fathers anatomy study – which I’ve yet to title

In the large drawing the spine will connect to issues with his Lumbar Curve.

I add the brain as representation of his occupation and interests. He’s a thinker. He studied both phycology and philosophy. I recall when he completed his masters degree in guidance and counseling.

Years ago he gave me a small 23 page booklet about Transactional Analysis. It gave me  insight to some basic principles about relationship. Everyone should be so lucky.