gone to the dogs

Johanna has two dogs. I feel like one of them may have been present on one of our  Zoom calls, though I admit, this may be my imagination. I ask her to send photos because I’d like to include them in this composition. She responds with numerous pictures. I carefully look at all their features and ask her to measure top of ears to bottom of feet…uh…paws.

Meet Tito ↓.

Tito…those ears.
Tito…those eyes.
Tito…that snout.
Tito…that soft hair.
Tito…you have the smallest teeth I’ve ever seen.

Meet Pepe.↓

Your ears are like wings.
Little one.
I imagine you fly.

I have one more critter in this study, but right now the focus is on the canines. This post has gone to the dogs…#titoandpepe #animalmedicine

#wip #PortraitOfJohannaStudyofNonalcoholicFattyLiverDisease

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©2023 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ

pink scaly macule with hemorrhagic crust

This post is titled with the words found under the Clinical Information area of my Dermatophatology Report. Tara, assisting with my out-patient procedure, hands the sheet to me before I leave the room.  I also have an image on my phone, of the basal cell carcinoma histology. Dr. DeLuca shoots it for me with her cell phone. Gladly, I leave behind the unwelcome guest that’s been hanging out in my Right inferior Central Malar Cheek.

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If you’re familiar with my work, you know my studies come from real people. I guess it’s time for me to share some of my biological system’s messy stuff.

 

This started last summer, with what appeared to be a dark small cluster on my cheek, though really, I bet it all began years ago. The sun and I go way back and I haven’t always worn sunscreen and cap.

I pick at the cluster until it breaks open. Weeks pass, it doesn’t heal completely, and then months pass. I wonder if maybe I need to stop doing a handstand during Yoga. Over Christmas break, I ask my sister what she thinks about the area. The borders appears dry, uneven – see a doctor, she says. I return to Phoenix and schedule an appointment to see the dermatologist.

A biopsy determines it is basil cell carcinoma. I am scheduled for something called, Moh’s surgery. Because I’m particularly busy and they want me to have some down time afterwards, I wait a few weeks before going in. I kind of wish I’d never waited; there’s never a good time.

Moh’s involves cutting away a thin layer of skin and taking it, right then and there, to their in- house lab. Once under the microscope, the doctor can see the irregular tissue and know to stop or to continue cutting away until it’s all captured and removed.  This afternoon, it takes a few rounds. I don’t really understand what is happening until Dr. DeLuca enters the room the final time and announces, It’s all gone!

I ask a lot of questions and both the doctor and her assistant are great with information. As noted, I ask Dr DeLuca if I can have a photo of what things look like under the microscope. Had I really understood early on, I would have asked for a photo after each cut.

It’s natural for me to research, draw and try to understand…stuff.  While this is a piece of my skin,  I don’t know that I understand everything I see. The larger, darker, odd shaped forms are the carcinoma. Is each area an individual cell or is each area a cluster of cells? The centered  top skin debris makes for an interesting scape/edge, don’t you think?

Basal cells line the lower part (base) of the epidermis (the outermost layer of the skin). They produce new skin cells (programmed by their DNA). As the new skin cells are produced, older cells are pushed towards the surface where they die and are shed. Basal cell carcinoma is the most common form of skin cancer. It can be cause by repeated and unprotected skin exposure to UV rays. It spreads slow and rarely metastasizes. If left untreated it can continue to grow.

#MicroscopicExamination #DisturbinglyBeautiful #HealingWell

 

a lesson in art making with med students

Arriving to the University of Arizona, College of Medicine in downtown Phoenix, I recall Gillian, who was in last year’s workshop. She’d described first-year, medical school experience to be like drinking out of a fire-hose. Her words are with me as people begin filing into the classroom.

It’s the noon hour and some students arrive with lunch in hand. Others stand in the classroom as it is being set up for art-making. They’re still considering whether they might stay and make art or use the time to study. Several let me know they plan to draw but will be leaving early because they have a class. I welcome all of them to come in for as long as they can manage.

Medical models available for art class.

I’ve been coming in to work with first-year med students since 2017. They are completing their first semester as well as preparing to host their annual Celebration of Appreciation. The evening honors the individuals who have donated their bodies to the anatomy lab. I work with students to create a work of art that will hold an experience and honor their donor. I like working with this group. I enjoy coming to know the unique way each and every one of them  experiences their anatomy class and their donor.

I feel like I stand at two ends; I teach the workshop and I learn. #AboutBeingHuman

I make my way to a table where one person ↓ paints the small intestine. I’m curious about the color. Why yellow? She tells me about her donor’s small intestine and describes how bright and floral-like they appeared. The female sitting next to her explains they shared the same donor. She carefully draws the bottom of the brain. She also tells me everything was bright. They both decide the color and form they experienced with this particular person probably had to do with her age. She was young, they inform me. I respond with more questions. What does this mean? What is young?  She was 66 years old.

Somehow we begin discussing the blood-brain barrier. The male at the table says he’d thought it a separate layer or membrane enclosing the brain. Meanwhile, he stands up and uses his hands to imply the curve of the head, the outer edge of the brain. I’m surprised. Do you mean it’s not!? He tells me, in no uncertain terms, it is not a separate membrane, the blood brain barrier is a ‘property’ of the blood vessels! My minds quickly formulates a picture of endothelial cells lining the inside of the brain’s blood vessels. He repeats himself, both times emphasizing the word property.

I move to another table where everyone is working bold compositions that include bright line, both contour and texture, on black paper. One student has a set of medical lung models in front of her ↑.  She describes the experience with her particular donor. The cancer was in different areas of the body including in the lungs. It is the latter that had the strongest impact and now directs her drawing.

Another student ↑ introduces me to the filum terminale. I can tell by how he has laid marks down, that he is working an area at the base of the spine. I sense his excitement as he shares first noting the fibrous tissue.

At another table someone paints ↓ an (beautiful) eyeball on stretched canvas. She was quick to start and I’m impressed at how she’s pulled it all together in such a short amount of time. We discuss mixing a few colors and laying in different quality of lines.

Next to her another student ↓ focuses on the Circle of Willis. She’s decided that it resembles an alien. I agreed after looking at her drawing.

I make my way back to the first group and to the student who’d informed me about the blood-brain barrier. He’d completed several fine hand studies ↓ using graphite. He shares his very real and very human reaction to his donor’s hands.
At the end of the afternoon, I can’t help but consider the ways we can be confronted by our humanness. Certainly, studying human anatomy is a unique way to learn about another. It’s also a very unique way to learn about one’s self. #ArtMakingDoesThisToo

Practical Teacher by Robin H Melillo

Thanks everyone, for showing up, and sharing your experience. #artmaking
Thanks Cindi, for inviting me to come back. #artinemedicine

I catch Cindi (Director of Art in Medicine) photographing a student and her completed drawing.

#CeremonyOfAppreciation #ProgramOfArtInMedicine #UniversityofArizona #ArtAndAnatomyWorkshop #GottaHaveArt

purkinje and pyramidal – notes on these neurons

Initially, I can’t get straight on the name nor the spelling of each of these cells. Certainly, writing this post helps!

I recognize a Purkinje neuron by its branching dendrites. This tree-like form holding space and presence, is named after Jan Evangelista Purkyně.

The Purkinje cell body is one of the largest in the human brain. I call this one ↓ First Born, because aside from being the first neurons identified, I also learn they are born during the earliest stages of cerebellar neurogenesis (in an interesting location of the cerebellum that connects the 2 hemispheres).

the prompt is ‘fly”

Like so many events during the pandemic, Bar Flies moved into a virtual space. For now, their usual live productions remain on hold. They ask participants to illustrate a true story, based on a prompt.

I’m invited, along with others, and the theme is…FLY! We can work classic comic style, in photography, embroidery or any other form of mixed media. It can run with all text or even be a collaboration with another. #SoOpenICanDoThis

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It’s July, I’m in Texas visiting mom, when I receive the invite. Oddly (or maybe naturally), I go to the family encyclopedia set of my childhood (…time flies or does it fly?). I pull the F, locate fly and make a copy of it. And I carry it ↑ with me as I fly back home, a few days later.

Back in Phoenix, I go into my studio, not having been in it for a few weeks. Looking out the door, to the side yard, I see a beautiful oriole. How long has he been there? He’s so still. #FlyNot

I gather a variety of material (cuz it’s all an experiment) and begin this illustrated study.
Truly, #OnTheFly.

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Oh…and here are design outtakes!
Thanks again, Amy!

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There are 8 participants → Go look!
For more info → Bar Flies.

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©2021 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

a concoction of small life

organizing pathogens

In the studio, I think about how to group this series of small works. Arranging and rearranging, until maybe, I am satisfied. 

Eventually I pull out all (all!) of my under the microscope studies from the last year and recall a conversation with Tapoka.

Me: I can’t call a whipworm a microbe, can I?
Tapoka: I think it is a microorganism as it is small but it has many cells. I believe microbes are usually single celled like a bacteria would be.

According to my handy-dandy Medical Meanings, second edition glossary:

Micro– is a combining form, usually used as a prefix, that is a near borrowing of the Greek mikros, “small, petty, trivial”.
And…
Microbe– is a concoction of micro- + the Greek bios, “life”, proposed in the late 19th century to designate any minute, living organism; useful as a generic term for the gamut from viruses to protozoa.

Based on everything I’ve learned and considering the last year we’ve had, I have no appreciation for the meaning of mikros including words like petty or trivial. 

I tack all my work up. It appears I have a concoction of small life on the studio wall.

I know human body as ecosystem with diverse population living within. Some of those organisms cooperate, others (most?) compete with each other and with host. Microbes manipulate. Survival…
#cooperation #competition #life #NothingInStasis 

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FYI: UPPERCASE (50th edition) published a few of my pathogens. Magazine out in July!
Click on image to see expanded version.

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©2021 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ

putting the puzzle together

When it’s better for everyone, it’s better for everyone.  Eleanor Roosevelt

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After my conversation with Tapoka, I’m better able to understand an earlier discussion with Maria (Duque), whom as you might recall also works with Trichuris trichiura, aka the whipworm. Duque explained When the eggs arrive in the caecum, they hatch in a process that is dependent on microbiota. We can recreate this in the lab by incubating T.muris eggs (blue) ↓ with Escherichia coli (yellow). My PhD student, Tapoka Mkandawire, is investigating how this happens.

Picture by by microscopy guru David Goulding.

It looks like the bacteria aggregates around a region of the egg called polar plug. Then, the polar plug is dissolved and the larvae that is inside comes out.

When the eggs arrive in the caecum, they hatch in a process that is dependent on microbiota.

While I absolutely love the blue stain in the scientific photograph, in keeping with the bigger picture of this series, I use vermillion and sienna, part of the unifying palette.

Tapoka and I continue our conversation about bacteria in the human intestine. She explains a crosstalk of sorts, that goes on between worm and bacteria, resulting in infection. I listen for the various things I’ve learned about other bugs, that have to come into play, like temperature and oxygen.

She returns to explaining DNA sequencing of the many species of bacteria in the intestine. It’s like a picture box. We’re going to put this all together because we have so much information. All the pieces of the puzzle will come together!

Of course a puzzle ↓ element surfaces. #PoopSample #InformationGathers

Curious, I ask Tapoka a final question: It just feels to me like the potential for serious disease is always present with whipworms. What purpose do they serve, if any, in the human gut?

They do cause serious illness when you have an acute infection (high numbers of worms), and it is not good for children in particular under 5 as it has an impact on nutrition and development. However the flip side is that parasites like the whipworm are really good at sending signals to our immune system. We hope in the future to be able to use these signals to help people with auto immune diseases; starting with those in the gut like Celiac and Irritable Bowel.

Tapoka sends video. One is eggs and hatched larvae (very clean). She likes that it appears the worm is waving hello. I appreciate her light-hearted nature.

I take a final opportunity to draw one more whipworm. I can’t help but emphasize the linear shape/quality of this parasite.

I begin this public engagement project with the whipworm and chance directs I end with it.
#ICircleBack 

The science is fascinating and the work is important. This entire experience has been/is organic. Art making is the way I learn. With this series I experimented with new surfaces, forms and materials. 
#GottaHaveArt #GottaHaveLife

And this post will end with Tapoka’s take on Eleanor’s words: It doesn’t get better for everyone until it gets better for everyone. 
#NeglectedTropicalDiseases

 

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©2021 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ

the role of host intestinal bacteria in trichuriasis

This week I meet Tapoka Mkandawire, a scientist out of the Welcome Sanger Institute.

Tapoka’s focus is Trichuriasis, a disease I cover earlier in this public engagement project. Looking at the role of the host intestinal bacteria (microbiota) in inducing the hatching of whipworm eggs, she brings  another angle to the picture.

Trichuriasis is a disease caused by infection with Trichuris trichiura, the human whipworm; affecting over 450 million people. She reminds me, the infection occurs when people eat food or drink water contaminated with whipworm eggs. These eggs hatch in the intestines liberating worms that burrow into the intestinal wall.

In my work I collect various samples from the intestine, different bacteria reside in specific communities or sections along the gut and they have different properties and functions as a result of this. Some of these samples are also better at inducing hatching of the whipworms than others. We can look at the DNA of these communities through metagenomic analysis and get an in-depth understanding of the members and the functions of these populations and relate this to their ability to cause whipworm hatching.

Tapoka describes the barrel shaped egg ↑ and its pair of polar plugs at each end and continues, When the parasite eggs get to the cecum they detect that this is the environment they need to be in to establish an infection. Part of the way they can detect this is through the bacteria, as like the worms, different bacteria prefer different parts of the gut. The bacteria in the caecum, are a signal to the worm in the egg that it is in the right place. Once that signal has been received the process of hatching can begin. During hatching the polar plugs on the egg, the little blobs at either end, are eroded away and then the worm is free to swim out of the egg into the gut where it can infect cells. This eroding or degrading of the polar plugs is done by enzymes expressed by the worms and bacteria.

I particularly enjoy detailing the bacteria.

And adding depth.

I ask her to define metagenomics. A collection of genetic material from a mixed community of organisms….lots of DNA coming from different species.

Oops! I take this to far and will have to bring it back.

We end up talking about the uniqueness of the individual all the way down to the uniqueness of their bugs (microbiome).

Tapoka: We curate our microbes!
Me: We curate our gut microbiome?
T: Yes, and it’s a diverse variety. Imagine a hive of activity! A swarm! Chaos!
M: Do you know what bacteria is doing what, and where?
T: I’m getting closer!

I’m getting close too…as color pulls this all together.

And with this, the conversation turns to poop and all the information a stool sample can gather. She also talks about the hygiene hypothesis and the missing friends theory. 

I’m curious, can you send a stool sample image? Under the microscope? She can and she does!

She sends many files labeled Poo/Debris Under Microscope.
Above ↑ and below ↓ are one sample at two different magnifications.

Question: What is all this where looking at here? And what, in particular, is the bright perfect circle?

I don’t know about you, but this stuff makes me think of the work of Paul Klee!

Below is my mixed media version of … a poo smear. #someprocess

materials for a collage

There is such a value to drawing and painting things out for me. #looking #seeing
It’s truly how I learn.

I’m not finished…there’s a little bit more I think I want to cover with this bacteria/whipworm/cecum/egg thing.

Good to meet you Tapoka, I have to admit, this was fun. Thank you!

For more about Tapoka Mkandawire → LinkedIn.

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©2021 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ

schistosoma mansoni and its intermediate host, a snail

Five months have passed since I last focused on the Public Engagement series with Maria Duque, at Sanger Institute. The focus: parasites and Neglected Tropic Diseases (NTD’s).

I meet a new scientist (#5 out of 6) who introduces me (and you) to yet another malicious actor/parasite and its destruction/disease.

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When I first connect with Dr. Sarah Buddenborg, it’s November and she is at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, in the UK. We finally meet via zoom, on a Monday afternoon, this last May. She’s in transition mode, having returned to the US, to begin a new position a week from the day we speak.

Upon introductions, I learn she’d received a PhD in Biology, at the University of New Mexico. I tell her I received my MFA at New Mexico State University. We both agree the NM desert is great landscape. 

Side note: During this pandemic, when the lab Sarah works in, shuts down, she works tracking Covid-19 cases. Curious, I ask a few questions, and then I force myself to stay focused on the blood fluke, Schistosoma mansoni. (We’ll talk Covid sequencing another time!).

Sarah works on the parasite, S mansoni.

“It’s truly an incredible worm, she says, with separate male and female adult worms that fit together like a hot dog inside a hot dog bun! …I’ve worked with S. mansoni for over 12 years now, only recently switching from looking at the snail host stages to the sexual development and sexual differentiation of males and females.”

I confess, from the various parasites on the list, I choose this one because its intermediate host is a snail. I imagine a coiled worm and a spiraled snail could make for engaging, line compositions. 

Schistosoma mansoni (shisto = split and soma = body).

 

I spend an afternoon sketching these ↑  adult parasitic worms only to get a sense of their fascinating architecture.

-The male (with suckers, oral and ventral) has a gynaecophoric canal (gunaiko = female and  phoros = bearing). This ventral groove is where the female fits. (See her ↑ in there!)
-They mate for life. (Though rumor has it the female can wander to a new mate.) 
-They are big enough to see with the naked eye.
-They live inside the portal vein of their human host. (Eek! Is this right?!)
-They lay about 300 eggs a day. (Which land in host’s liver…ugh!)
-They travel against gravity, in this case, against the flow of blood. 
-These worms wreak some havoc.

I set up the snail and detail in some of its anatomy.

 

Keep in mind, I choose this parasite because I want to draw a snail. As I begin to understand the poor creature is the intermediate host, I don’t want to add eggs or larval stages to the composition. I want to leave this ↑ snail the whole and complete focal point. #safe #sound

Here is how this stage of the worm’s life cycle plays out:
Eggs are excreted into freshwater ↓ via urine or feces, from an infected human.
Question: Can eggs be seen with the naked eye?

Eggs hatch releasing free-swimming, ciliated (note hair-like ↑ edge) miracidia (from the Greek meaning youth) into surrounding water. The miracidia burrow into (Sarah uses the phrase “takes over“) tissue of a freshwater snail, specifically Biomphalaria glabrata.
Questions: Does the snail suffer? How long is the snail able to survive such a hijacking of its body?

Inside of the snail, miracidia lose their cilia, developing into mother sporocysts through asexual reproduction, eventually emerging are daughter sporocysts, further morphing into the fork tailed cercaria phase. #Shapeshifter

Sarah’s photo background influences my composition.

Sarah shows me this one ↑ photo as she emphasizing tens of thousands of cercaria are released by the snail and will eventually borrow (penetrate) into a human host.

Interesting note: temperature, light and chemistry play important roles in how this bug navigates.

Sarah explains how the parasite enters the definitive host (human), and how worms maneuver through that system, where they end up, and how the whole cycle gets repeated. She also talks genomics and sequencing and assembling sex chromosomes, showing me a karyotype and quickly running through a few details about the female and male. 

I ask Sarah what draws her to this kind of work. She notes the travel and the field work in the small villages where transmission is highest and how this has allowed her to witness the suffering. She knows the impact of her work. 

Thank you Sarah!
And welcome back to the US. 

TBC…

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©2021 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ

mitochondria – vital principle

Interested in mitochondria, both form and function, this study broadens my understanding.

I paint them a cadmium red because up to now I’ve only associated them with the physical. They are a fundamental sign of life, in particular cellular life, including how a cell divides, ages and dies. Mitochondria produce the energy that fuels cellular function. #ATP They monitor the health of a cell and if necessary, initiate cell death. #PowerHousesOfTheCell

They influence breath, blood and energy flow in the body. It is with this clarity that I make connection to the subtle body. Think life force, prana, qi. #ElectricalActivity #Meridians

A few more notes about these life giving/taking organelles
(that in this 2D format appear much too static):
Under the microscope they are alive with movement. #fission and #fusion.
They are living organisms that communicate with each other. #dynamicsystem
We breath to bring oxygen to mitochondria. #inhale #exhale
*Essential to cell function, they are fundamental for neuronal function. #thinkaboutthis
We need their energy to be able to interact with our environment. #life #life and #life
They have there own genome. (MtDNA) #PropsToTheMother

Did I throw the words life and live in here enough? You get the picture!
#AVitalCommotion

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©2021 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ

spike protein / chief rank

While I want only to draw and paint, I will share a few things (that I sort of understand) about the spike protein.

The most obvious identifying feature, and for me it’s the pull to draw the coronavirus again (and again), is the spike protein (S protein). By now everyone is familiar with this proteinscape (yes, I made the word up) along the outer edge of the virus which forms the identifying crown that it is named after.

Visually, I appreciate layout, structure and textural qualities.

I purchase new materials and enjoy the freedom archival marking pens bring me (I do not let go of paint and brush). The pens allow for a tighter and narrower clean line that holds its fluidity.

I look up the word protein to find it comes from the Greek proteios defined as chief rank or first place. Interesting, though I can’t say this helps me get any clearer on S proteins. (…or perhaps it does…)

There are many proteins involved in the coronavirus assembly, including M protein (membrane protein) and E protein (envelope protein).

I understand S proteins are glycoproteins meaning they contain a carbohydrate (a slippery sugar molecule) which helps disguise the virus so as not to be detected by host cells.
#penetrating #fusing

Without the S protein, viruses like the (novel) SARS-CoV-2 would not be able to interact with the cells of its potential host and cause infection. It also neutralizes antibodies after infection. Consequently, the S protein was/is ideal target for vaccine and antiviral research.
→ #ChiefRank

Are some proteins programmed to be so sneaky? #SurvivalOfTheMostAdaptable

This subject is more complicated than I can say…so it’s wise for me to return to the studio. I’m keeping this simple. (Cuz I don’t know a virologists and if I did I wouldn’t interrupt them right now cuz they’re probably very busy.)

Spike protein, I wish I’d never heard of you. Go away.

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©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

medulla oblongata / subtle and physical

The first time I hear anyone say the words medulla oblongata, it’s Lester describing the place where spirit enters the body. Now, all these many years later, I know where the energy center is located.

The medulla oblongata sits at the back of the neck, where the skull meets the spine. I could not have imagined, back in the day, I’d draw and detail such an anatomical study. Here is a cross section of the space / the place where your spirit enters your body.

Recently I hear it called the Mouth of God. #LifeForce #Prana

cross section of medulla oblongata

Subtle
Base of brain
Seat of life
Where soul enters body
Medulla, the marrow
core of all cores
center of all centers
Aum

Cross section of Medulla Oblongata,  Mixed media on paper.

Physical
Medulla, Latin for the marrow
medius, middle
central substance, core
Oblongata defined as rather long
long stem structure
at the lower part of the brainstem.
Your breath, Your heart, and Your sleeping and waking.

One more note.
The next time you vomit or sneeze, know your medulla oblongata is involved too.

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centering

In the spine
At the center
Where nerve impulses flow
Is where you’ll find me

 

#Who am I #What am I #What is the physical body #What is my relationship to it
#Matter #Spirit #RootToRise
#art #science #yoga