Cell 2 Soul: The Humane Health Care Blog

Hokusai

 Katsushika Hokusai (1760 - 1849) is the most renown Japanese print maker. You can see his prints here.  The following is a self portrait at age 83.

Marginal Notes: Impressionistic Medicine

 
"La Ronde" by Camille Pissarro

At a recent visit to the Clark Institute, while standing in front of one of Pissarro's portraits, I — as a practitioner of another form of art, the art of medicine — could not help but think that we clinicians are called to view those patients entrusted to our care as equals in the sense of their humanity, their needs and wants.  more»

 

Brian T. Maurer has practiced pediatrics as a Physician Assistant for 32 years.  His "Marginal Notes" column appears periodically in the Cell2Soul Blog. The title "Marginal Notes" is taken from a quote by Henry David Thoreau: "I love a broad margin to my life."

No Ashtrays, No Souvenirs

Reknown potter, Toshiko Takaezu, died in Honolulu on March 9, 2011 at the age of 88.  Born on June 17, 1922, in Pepeekeo, Hawaii, the middle child of 11, her parents were Japanese immigrants from Okinawa.

She was strongly influenced by her study of Zen Buddhism, and regarded her ceramic work as an outgrowth of nature and seamlessly interconnected with the rest of her life. “I see no difference between making pots, cooking and growing vegetables,” she was fond of saying. Indeed, she often used her kilns to bake chicken in clay, and dry mushrooms, apples and zucchinis.

“You are not an artist simply because you paint or sculpt or make pots that cannot be used,” she said. “An artist is a poet in his or her own medium. And when an artist produces a good piece, that work has mystery, an unsaid quality; it is alive.”

Full NY Times Obituary.

In 1975, Takaezu had a workshop at Kauai Community College which was organized by Wayne Miyata.  Martha Elpern was one of the participants and has these fading photos in an album.

 

Marginal Notes: Touching Portraits

 
"Execution" © James Esber

When I step into an exam room to see a patient, I enter another world. I offer a greeting—an invitation of sorts—create an ambiance, ask a question or two. If the chemistry is right, the patient begins to talk, expressing concerns, fears, pain; sometimes hope, even joy. I provide the framework, the blank canvas, on which the patient might choose to render a drawing, a portrait—a blend of some segment of existence. more»

 

Brian T. Maurer has practiced pediatrics as a Physician Assistant for thirty years.  His "Marginal Notes" column appears periodically in the Cell2Soul Blog. The title "Marginal Notes" is taken from a quote by Henry David Thoreau: "I love a broad margin to my life."

Marginal Notes: The last time I saw Paris

 
"Paris through a window" by Marc Chagall, 1913

In those days Paris was color blind.  Americans who had served in the European theatre in the First World War were eager to return to Paris.  These expatriates rejected their parochial roots and set out to find themselves in the big city.  Paris was where it was at.  more»

 

Brian T. Maurer has practiced pediatrics as a Physician Assistant for thirty years.  His "Marginal Notes" column appears periodically in the Cell2Soul Blog. The title "Marginal Notes" is taken from a quote by Henry David Thoreau: "I love a broad margin to my life."

Marginal Notes: Learning to capture the human figure

In his series of articles on the art of drawing, artist and author James McMullan speaks to that intuitive intelligence which the visual artist needs to cultivate in order to capture forces inherent in the human body:

Once we tune into these cooperative forces that animate the body, they seem obvious; yet opening up the kind of intuitive intelligence we need in order to see these forces is difficult when we are so used to relying mainly on the simple scanning operations of our eyes. As we draw, we need to record pressures and not just edges, and we need to see relationships between parts rather than just pieces of the body.

Reading these words, I was struck by the similarity between the art employed in drawing the human figure and the art of the practice of medicine.  Both require the use of intuition to recognize the forces in play before the eyes of the observer.  more»

 

Brian T. Maurer has practiced pediatrics as a Physician Assistant for thirty years.  His "Marginal Notes" column appears periodically in the Cell2Soul Blog. The title "Marginal Notes" is taken from a quote by Henry David Thoreau: "I love a broad margin to my life."

Marginal Notes: A Pupil of Picasso

 
Maya and the Doll by Pablo Picasso

In the Adventure of the Copper Beeches, Sherlock Holmes remarks: “To the man who loves art for its own sake, it is frequently in its least important and lowliest manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived.” Over the years I have taken keen pleasure in the art of medicine—and in the art of Picasso as well. more»

 

Brian T. Maurer has practiced pediatrics as a Physician Assistant for thirty years.  His "Marginal Notes" column appears periodically in the Cell2Soul Blog. The title "Marginal Notes" is taken from a quote by Henry David Thoreau: "I love a broad margin to my life."

Marginal Notes: The Naïve Narrative

 

In his recent column In Defense of Naïve Reading, Professor Robert Pippin speaks to the state of literary criticism as it is taught on university campuses.  His contention is that, although the current trend is to scrutinize the literary arts through the lens of the natural scientific research model — with the ultimate end of developing a “science of meaning” — creative works themselves were never crafted to serve research.  Rather, their authors penned them as works of art, works meant to speak to us at the deepest level of our being. I was reminded of these words during small group discussion at our recent Cell2Soul gathering on Nantucket. more»

 

Brian T. Maurer has practiced pediatrics as a Physician Assistant for thirty years.  His "Marginal Notes" column appears periodically in the Cell2Soul Blog. The title "Marginal Notes" is taken from a quote by Henry David Thoreau: "I love a broad margin to my life."

Alan Blum Gallery

 

I don’t see why they have to have
all those syllables
just to say one word.
I like older doctors.
They seem to talk to you more.
Just like you talkin’.
Younger doctors seem to be in such a hurry.
I had one doctor,
used to have to chase him,
grab onto his white coat.
Flittin’ up and down the hall.
You want to ask him somethin’
you have to run him down.

Artist Bio:  Alan Blum is a family physician who has been an influential force in the battle against tobacco.  As a resident, he founded "Doctors Ought to Care," DOC, a militant physician anti-smoking organization.  In creative moments, Dr. Blum sketches his patients and adds their poignant words.  His drawings comment powerfully on the patient-physician dyad.  We will feature his them every week or so in the "Alan Blum Gallery."  You may reach Alan Blum at Email. He will appreciate your comments.

O what sadness...

 
A  Hotel Room. Edward Hopper (1882-1967)

Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Lugano

O what sadness unaware that it’s sadness! What despair that doesn’t know it’s despair.

A business woman, her unpacked suitcase on the floor, sits on a bed half undressed, in red underwear, her hair impeccable; she has a piece of paper in her hand, probably with numbers.

Who are you? Nobody will ask. She doesn’t know either.

Copyright 2007 by Robert Hass/ Czeslaw Milosz