Life Drawing Reframes Medicine
Med 1 Class President Wesley Hill sketches the model in charcoal.
Drawing not only develops hand-eye coordination, it teaches one to really observe, to see, as nothing else ever will. -- Marculewicz
One must always draw, draw with the eyes, when one cannot draw with a pencil. -- Balthus
Art and medicine have been connected since the beginning of time — on cave walls, in Greek sculpture, on canvases by Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Dix, Picasso, Kahlo, and Wyeth. When things go wrong, when disabilities and illnesses occur, when suffering persists, visual artists record these general and intimate stories using unique tools and colors.
In a project conceived by Chris Phelps, PhD, former chair of anatomy, and Lois LaCivita Nixon, PhD, course director for On Doctoring at the USF College of Medicine, students were invited to participate in a Life Drawing class to consider medicine’s central focus -- the human body, in a slightly different way. The intention was to provide a Medical Humanities connection to behavioral sciences, patient diagnosis, and anatomy so that students could focus on the human figure in a non-medical setting -- a figure that might laugh, fidget, cough, and scratch.
“Students often draw things to learn or observe diagrams in their books. It seemed like a natural correlation with the sciences,” said Dr. Nixon. “These students know the body well. They are able to name all the parts of it, and now they get to consider simultaneously both its subjective and objective nature.”
Recently 19 Med I and II students trekked across campus from the medical college to the College of Fine Arts to participate in the optional Life Drawing session. The students filled an unfamiliar, clearly non-medical room containing colorful posters, stools, and jars of brushes, pens, sharpeners -- not a lab coat, test tube, or thick medical book in sight! Instead, the untidy classroom was arranged with spindly easels circling the central stage or platform, and new tools that included charcoal sticks, sharpeners, and large pads of newsprint paper. An unknown figure, a 60-year-old man, who would serve as their model greeted them with a smile.
Dr. Lois Nixon (right front), director of the On Doctoring course, says the Life Drawing class allows students to observe and interpret the human body in a non-medical setting.
Neil Bender, an assistant professor in the Visual and Performing Arts, began with a short powerpoint lecture about human anatomy and drawing techniques. It became clear that specific points, such as shoulders, hip bones, and knees would seize attention when students tried to create figure lines. Later Bender provided energetic assistance to the students as they completed rapid sketches of the arm or the foot before moving to the full human figure.
Classes like this have been offered at Columbia University, New York University, and other medical schools to emphasize the kinds of observation and interpretation skills associated with medicine.
They encourage students to become familiar with parts of as well as the full, fluid, subjective body. In addition, the session and focus can help ease tensions that some medical students may experience when they start studying and dissecting their cadaver.
Neil Bender of the USF College of Visual and Performing Arts led the session.
Prior to the session, several students noted that they had never seen a fully nude adult body but all students were responsive to the pilot class and fully attentive to the drawing challenges.
The model eventually sat for 30 to 40 minutes so that students could draw his full figure. Because the easels circled the figure, there were as many perspectives as there were students.
The exercise, not exactly what students might have thought about within a medical school context, was greeted as an enthusiastic challenge and each student worked studiously on the various assignments.
Second-year medical students Fabio Ferrari and Christine Booth observe the model as they draw.
“I felt really excited. I like to draw for stress relief, but this was my first time drawing a human being,” said first-year medical student Erika Reese.
Lauren Mullinax, a second-year medical student, didn’t feel like her excitement was translating into art. “I am doing awful as an artist but to actually see a person with feelings is nice,” she observed.
“I’ve never taken a drawing class before. It’s a new experience. It’s way different from the norm,” said Dan Razzano, an master's student specializing in anatomy.
The Life Art drawing class offers an unusual experience for medical students and lessons about patient movement and perspective. Rather than relying on the text or on specific exam and patient assessment patterns, students were able to become familiar with the human body in a non-medical way.
Dr. Nixon, noting that good patient care requires a level of comfort between doctors and patients, regards the drawing exercise as another lens for seeing and interpreting as well as a way for reducing tension between the doctor and patient. A patient can tell when their doctor is uncomfortable with them during an examination and this exercise may lead to new insights and agilities for providing care, she said.
The Life Art drawing session lasted about two hours. It consisted of a short presentation on figure art from Bender. The student then sketched seven one-minute drawings, capturing the essence of the model as he struck different poses. They also spent 30 minutes on a more detailed drawing of the entire human figure. According to Bender, the students were doing well flexing their creative muscles.
“You guys are better than my intermediate class. Any of you want to change majors?” Bender joked.
The students’ artwork will be displayed in the Shimberg Health Science Library for about two weeks starting November 7.
- Monique Salazar, USF Health Communications, contributed to this story.
- Photos by Eric Younghans
