all too ephemeral

/əˈfɛmərəl/ synonyms: temporary, transitory, fleeting, evanescent, momentary, short-lived, volatile Eva Mae, 24

[lungpeiling]

Those smooth, spit-cleaned cheeks gave no indication of the dreams crowding her skull. Should she make it to adulthood, the girl would arrive with two hundred and six bones. Two and a half million sweat glands. Ninety-six thousand kilometers of blood vessels. Forty-six chromosomes. Seven meters of small intestines. Six hundred and six discrete muscles. One hundred billion cerebral neurons. Two kidneys. A liver. A heart. A hundred trillion cells that died and were replaced, again and again. But no matter how many ways she dismembered and quantified the body lying beside her, she couldn’t say how many years the girl would wait before she married, if at all, or how many children she would have, if any; and between the creation of this body and its end lay the mystery the girl would spend her life solving.

Anthony Marra, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena (via lungpeiling)

[lungpeiling]

He’d spin faster and faster, Lydia clinging tighter and tighter, until he collapsed on the rug, letting her roll, laughing, off his back. She never got tired of it. Found and lost and found again, lost in plain sight, pressed to his back, her feet clasped in his hands. What made something precious? Losing it and finding it.

Celeste Ng, Everything I Never Told You (via lungpeiling)

[medicalstate]

Plate V from Handbuch der Anatomie des Menschen, 1841 by Dr. Carl Ernest Bock.

[alllways]

Which do you want: the pain of staying where you are, or the pain of growth?

Judith Hanson Lasater (via bearbearpdx)

Good question

[mrmcqueen]

Reading time.

[emae]

"The Floor-Scrapers" Gustave Caillebotte

This piece demonstrates the gestalt principle of continuance. There are three figures, the middle of which is the most forward with the two remaining figures tilted towards him either with his whole body as seen on the left or which just his face as seen on the right. Furthermore, their arm-motions as they scrape the floor move outward toward us as viewers. Again, the emphasis is forward. This emphasis is made more prominent by the perspective lines as well. The principle of continuance aids in the concept of these workers scraping the floor for what may seem like a never-ending time period. We can see in the image that they have yet a lot more work to do and we as viewers are engaged with the painting as we imagine them continuing this mundane chore for many more hours.

I also considered the similiary principle in color of the floor-scrapers and the floor itself, though this is secondary to the idea of continuity and the work that they are doing. Regarding similarity, Caillebotte may desire to show the idea that these men have done this work so long, they are less human and more like the floor they work upon. Nonetheless, he paints them with magnificent musculature and glorifies their form in the diffused light from the window showing appreciation for a very common and lowly occupation during this time.

[emae]

"Air and Water I" M.C. Escher

This piece demonstrates the gestalt principle of figure/ground. In the top half of this image, the figures are black on a white ground while the bottom half shows the opposite where the figures are white on a black ground. While Escher subtly morphs the shapes until they reach their final form of either a bird or a fish, Escher also chooses to include more and more detail as the forms progress to make the transformation even more apparent. The transformation is also able to be seen and recognized in relationship to the amount of ground space surrounding each figure. There is little ground for either the black or white figures near the center of the image but as you move to the extremes again, the figure becomes the sole figure on a large amount of space which is the ground.

[emae]

"Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" Georges Seurat

This piece demonstrates the gestalt principle of proximity. This painting is comprised of many dots of color placed next to each other to create figures as we see them now. This is termed pointillism and Seurat believed placing dots of pure color next to each other would allow the work to be more vibrant. We see the idea of proximity not only used at the miniscule scale of these dots and the color of these dots to separate the figures but also by the large-scale separation of the figures as they occupy their places in the park. Seurat depicts many figures who, though they appear grouped based on proximity, seem detached and alone even within their grouping. For example, the three figures in the shade on the bottom left are positioned closely together but they do not interact with each other, nor are they looking at each other. The same is true for the two mother and daughter groupings at the center, and the two prominent figures on the left. The figures with the most interaction, in fact, seem to be the animals at the bottom of the image - particularly the monkey and the brown dog who appear to be leaving their proximity grouping and joining the other black dog.

[emae]

"Dark Cakes and Pies" Wayne Theibaud

This piece demonstrates the gestalt principle of similarity. Because all of the cakes and pies in this image are equidistant from each other, proximity is secondarily, if at all, used. We rely on the similarity of the different desserts to group them in their respective types. The similiarity of the cakes and pies allows us to perceive rows of these images which would still hold true even if the shelves were removed. I feel like this uniformity speaks to our consumerism and the vast amount of choices we have each day. Thiebaud choosing to name this piece Dark Cakes and Pies may not only allude to the color choice but also the darkness of greed and gluttony that our culture has grown accustomed to.

Furthermore, the value scale used in this piece is one of very high contrast, using values from both extremes of light and dark grays with none in between. This value scale choice emphasizes the extreme mood of perhaps drama or brooding emotion that may accompany the decision to purchase a sweet and unhealthy treat!

[emae]

This piece by Lee Price shows symmetry across the horizontal axis. The bird's eye view allows us to see the bilateral symmetry of the figure with both arms visible. This is complemented by the items immediately in front of her on the table which occupy either side of her, as well as the two empty chairs. There are obvious deviations to the symmetry as made obvious by the floor tiling and the banana placement, however, the placement of the fruit bowl in relation to the figure's head - in size and shape as well - helps to secure the feeling of symmetry even more.

[sometimesshedraws]

Composition with watches. Crop, asymmetry, bilateral symmetry. Final project in illustrator.

[emae]

By Michael Reedy This is my example of asymmetry since the figure significantly leans to one side more than the other. The drawing is balanced, however, in that while she leans to the left, her gaze is to the right. Furthermore, the brightest space is her body at the center of the image while her dark shadow is equally balanced with the dark corner on the right. The shape of the right hand shadow also creates a point of interest as it intersects with the wall, making an imaginary triangle which keeps up movement around the whole image - not allowing any edge to be heavier than another.

[doctorswithoutborders]

Mothers as Primary Caregivers

We hope everyone had a wonderful Mothers Day this year! At MSF projects around the world, mothers are usually the primary caregivers, spending much of their time not only working and raising children, but looking after the health of their families. To all the mothers, you are an inspiration for our work

[eroscestlavie]

[emae]

lol

[emae]

Aubrey Beardsley uses stippling to create his pieces - dots placed in irregular or regular patterns. What interests me, in addition to his illustrative style which made him famous during his lifetime, is that he also uses stippling in the blank space.

[emae]

Gestalt - Closure

"Trapped 02" by Caitlin Hurd

This piece demonstrates the gestalt principle of closure since the artist does not fully complete her figures or the background. In fact, the figure seems to be both in front and part of the background as seen where her dress blends into the clouds. The closure here engages us to finish the outline of the two figures and in a way forces us to assume the position of either the girl holding down the second figure  or the girl being trapped. More likely we will assume the role of the trapped figure as it is the figure we need to most complete in our own imagination using the idea of closure.

[thenotquitedoctor-blog]

I first heard my mom was sick on Monday afternoon. I had seen her the night before but nothing had been said. I was visiting on break from med school and I am sure she didn’t want to worry me. Five days earlier at a routine eye exam they had checked her blood pressure. It was 223/130, which is...

[emae]

Some docs in my ER, after practicing for many years, become so immune to patient anxiety about their symptoms that the docs treat every patient as if they're exaggerating, and they'll barely touch them. Then when a really sick patient comes along, they're surprised and order all the things to cover their asses.