Wang Qingren

Today I'm writing part of my oral presentation on the Qing Dynasty, which was from 1644-1912. It was the last dynasty of emperors in China before the modern era. A TCM doctor by the name of Wang Qingren was quite important at that tie because he was the first to illustrate the anatomy of internal organs after viewing exposed carcasses during a period of plague. It is interesting to note that although internal anatomy was born out of China spontaneously (probably, although there were Westerners in China at that time), they are still not considered of major importance in TCM diagnosis and treatment as they are in Western medicine.


Wang Qingren


I'm at work today. I also watched the movie Conviction, did some groceries, cooked up a lovely healthy lunch, and read a magazine.


It is ANZAC Day today. I kinda feel I've done of dawn services my time with 7 years in the Army, but I'm still remembering the Diggers today in my own way.


Now I'm going to transcribe some of my notes from yesterday before I go home on-call and I really want to mop my floors tonight but I also really need to do some painting too. I'm working on a blue throat chakra piece but I think I might make it a turtle theme...hmmm.....

Art therapy

So I didn't do any painting yesterday as I promised myself, but I did read a little bit of The Web that has No Weaver.

But today when I got up I got cracking on finishing the second painting you can see above, the yellow one. I call it "Grays" or "Lesser Coverts". The top one is called "Myrniong" or "Anguish".

Myrniong or Anguish was began last Winter. I wasn't exactly in a happy head-space. I died my hair black and was feeling slightly emo. I went to the National Gallery of Victoria where they have Anguish by Schenck (see below)

It resonated with me in a goth kind of way. Then, I was driving through Myrniong and it was the most depressing weather and that's where this piece was born. The white area where the sun highlights behind clouds is sort of meant to be halo-like around the bird's head. The background is meant to be a landscape.

The birds - well, birds kind of creep me out. There is a statue in the Docklands (Melbourne) that I really like and I find it a bit creepy.  Here it is:

Grays or Lesser Coverts came about from the scientific anatomical drawings you find in the old Gray's Anatomy texts and also from other biology sketches. I stuck with the bird theme again. Lesser Coverts is one of the labels of the bird's anatomy and I kind of liked it as it made me thinks of "coverting" or "hiding" but not completely. Just slightly hiding from the world, which is kind of what I need to do some times.

The flame yellows and oranges are like a wild bushfire and are moving across the canvas in this slightly engulfing fashion.

Yep, my paintings have two names. I guess that's the kind of crazy thing that an artist would do.

I would call my style a mix of impressionism, abstract, and graphic. I try my very best to draw inspiration from my feelings about things, but not to directly copy anything while I'm creating, I let my brush go where it wants to go. I use acrylic paint on canvas.

So on my bucket list, one of my goals is to have an art exhibition. Maybe this year I'll have enough pieces to fill the little local gallery. I currently have second layer of number three drying as we speak. I'm very excited about this one. It's a different vibe to the first two.

Void

Nothing much is happening right now.  Just working, occasionally reading something for the Masters, doing stuff around the house and garden now the weather is improving.   I'm sewing this weekend on my spare time - just making a skirt/dress/wrap/top thingy (convertible for travel) by hand as I find it extremely therapeutic. 

Hence, I haven't been chained to the laptop and I haven't posted for awhile.

Words

A funny thing I noticed when I started this medical degree, is that I'd wake up and a medical word or term would come straight into my mind.  I'll try and log the ones I remember.  This term, on different days, I have woken up with;

• Postive rheumatoid factor
• Subchondral sclerosis

And this morning I woke up with "calcitonin".

I find it amusing.

Here is a picture I took outside the art gallery a few week ago;

Art and stuff

Well Thursday night my friend came over.  She lives about 4 hours drive away!  And I did her hair on Friday as I used to be a hairdresser in a former life and she never goes to hairdresser's or ever dyes her hair until just a few weeks ago and just need some advice and tweaking.  It was actually quite enjoyable to do a bit of hair again, although I was so slow at putting in the foils etc. It took hours.

She left in the afternoon and I got a darn migraine.  I was just thinking a few days ago that I hadn't had one in awhile.  The acupressure points my biochemistry lecturer taught me helped keep it to a minimum, but it still rendered me useless and unable to go into work.  The pressure points, btw, are for the kidney merdian if you produce too much serotonin and need to help excrete it.  The points are between the sternoclaivcular joints and where the first rib joins the manubrium.  Mmm... not sure what you'd call that.  I guess it's the first intercostal space immediately lateral to the manubrium.  You'll have to Google that if you're not anatomically minded.

The photo above is of a painting called "Anguish" by Albery Schenck from ~c. 1880 and is in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne.  I went in there yesterday for something to do and came across this painting, which I recognised as I think it's fairly famous/popular.  And I really like it and want a print for my house.  It kind of inspired me to paint again.  I have one painting I did about a year ago and I'm destroyed everything else I've ever done in typical crazy artist fashion.  Anyway, the feeling of my painting is similar to that of Anguish (but not as good, obviously) and I want to do a few more and have a collection.  The one I have done already was inspired by the bitter Winters we have here out in the rural areas near Melbourne.  I really hate the cold, but I'm starting to feel more and more that the Summers are better if you also have the dichotomy of the Winters.  It's neither good nor bad, it just is the other side of the same coin.  Pretty deep life stuff, eh?  I can be a little emo sometimes if I try.

Med - I officially start the term tomorrow, being the 30th of May, but Samoa is a day behind!