Tag: visuals

“My sister was havin’ too much stress on the job; and she got real sick, had to be put in the hospital.
And when she got home, she started tryin’ to stay well, even used that nicotine gum to stop smoking.
But when she went back, they called her in and told her she’s usin’ too much sick time…
and guess who started smokin’ again?”

“He doesn’t know anything now about the coins…
I give him his albums, and he go like this, page after page…after two minutes, he look up and stare.
He sit on the couch and he looks into the nothing…
so I took his hand and we both sat on the couch and

“Brain tumors cause so much pressure and exacerbate migraines, and it seems that with each MRI we experience ‘scanxiety’ awaiting the results.“

“The delivery of a human being is a truly precious miracle–however, labor can be a long and tedious process. Patients and caregivers alike, during this often difficult journey, will frequent the labor lounge of our labor-and-delivery ward and soak in these stunning views. Sunset was always my favorite, and gave me that final burst of energy while going into a long night of laboring with my patients.”

“This healthy young woman and her husband were unable to conceive and tried assisted reproduction. Over a two-year period, she endured seven cycles of egg retrieval and one failed embryo implant before she succeeded in becoming pregnant. In this photo, she is twenty weeks pregnant and never happier. The baby was born in November 2018.”

“For me, the anatomy lab was an incredibly moving experience. I will forever be grateful to the patients and families who have chosen to donate their bodies to education, and I felt a strong responsibility to learn as much as I could within those walls. In a way, my paintings are a tribute to them. I always found myself lost in thought, imagining the life that was once lived by the donors, and in my paintings I try to bring life to their different organs and systems.”

“One morning while walking my dog, I noted a collectionn of small twigs with just a hint of frost on them. The pattern made by the twigs reminded me of the slides I examine when looking for ferning, a pattern made by amniotic fluid which confirms that a woman has ruptured her membranes during labor.”

“In 2009, after many years in hospice work, I was asked to help a friend in Oregon do the spiritual work around her choice to have medical aid in dying. (She asked me to do this not as part of her hospice care, but as a friend.) We did a weekend intensive, and within two weeks she took her leave. I did this series of collages about a month after her death to honor her life choices and my experience of her release from her broken-down body.”