anatomy and drawing

The final word.

The final word is that the Art & Anatomy course is cancelled.

Perhaps I will start another blog.

Whispers, whispers…..

In the last few days there has been some new correspondence about the SSCs, so who knows? We may have another chance. It’s nice to know that our life model is still out there, and that Keele University Medical School hasn’t disappeared into a giant Auditors’ Black Hole.

In the long interval since the last post I have been busy with my imaginary bones – completely obsessional & unsaleable, and somewhat difficult to exhibit given that some of the drawings are 8 metres long. I am making enquiries at the moment for the distant future, but am also thinking it might be an idea to have a joint exhibition (sorry) in the meantime with a couple of other artists who share my slightly macabre interest?

Probably the last entry for this project blog:

Although a faceless person at the University cancelled the Anatomy and Art SSC for 2012, student demand was such that the life classes took place anyway. I was not involved personally, as no money was available for a fee or travelling expenses. However, the classes themselves generated enough income to pay the model.

As the two members of staff who were the initiators of the project have retired over the summer, it seems highly unlikely that this particular SSC will be running again.

Despite the negative response from An Administrator, I think the SSC was successful overall: students found the academic research challenging and interesting, even if some of them struggled with writing a Humanities essay rather than a purely scientific one. Although one or two obviously thought they had chosen an easy option (wrong…) most started with enthusiasm and managed to maintain the momentum for the duration of the module. The life classes were viewed with a mixture of eager anticipation and trepidation, but provided a rare opportunity for concentrated effort which didn’t involve the memorisation of abstruse knowledge.

As for me, I have been drawing bones like mad, and have been scavenging the local fields for animal bones…. which may provide a new topic for a blog.

A couple of weeks ago I altered the blog heading to read “…Year 3…”. All was well, we had a student for each block and the life model was ready and willing. I filled in my application form for access to the Keele IT system, and was about to post it when I learned that the Anatomy and Art SSC has been cancelled this year because it isn’t cost effective for one student per block. This is interesting, since they effectively pay me by the hour. The ways of Academe are strange indeed, and none of us heard the goalposts being moved.

Fortunately I hadn’t put a stamp on the envelope with the IT form in it.

I await developments….. (and have deleted a paragraph, and changed several adjectives in the above, this being a semi-public forum.)

The “Anatomy and Art” exhibition is now up, after considerable organisational problems. Some of the students had indeed disposed of their work (sounds better than “thrown away”, but that’s what they did). Another poor soul had had a disaster moving house, someone else has apparently dropped out of medicine completely, and others turned out to be untraceable (very odd, that.) Add to all this the logistic problems I didn’t have to deal with personally and it’s amazing that the thing turned out as successfully as it did.

I went in to the Medical School last week merely to reassure myself that all the drawings had arrived, and that I knew where everything would be on the dayof the show, and founc that most of the A1 sheets were so tightly rolled that it took two people to hold them open — a problem since solved thanks to a large board and a lot of heavy weights.

Dr. Lisetta Lovett, co-ordinator of the Humanities SSCs, had undertaken the bulk of the organisation (and lived to regret it, I think) and also helped in the final selection and hanging of the work. In the end, we mounted a modest but representative selection of students’ drawings with a couple of pieces from members of staff who attended the life classes. We also had room to feature some work on “Art & Wellness” from the Trentham Mews General Medical Practice and Treetops’ Children’s Hospice who participate in the Medical Humanities SSCs. Compromises had to be made in view of the restricted display area – loads of space in the evenings but tightly packed with bodies during working hours. Interesting to discover, too, that foyer lighting is not quite the same as gallery lighting….

The exhibition was opened by Ann Roach, a local artist, and was very well attended. Mark Fahmy, a medical student who chose to go to the New Vic Theatre in Stoke for his Humanities SSC, performed an insightful monologue about mental illness. The expected music didn’t make an appearance, but the wine & canapés were pretty good. Lisetta had the bright idea of suggesting that the drawings could be “sold” in aid of Operation Smile, a children’s charity: the resulting crop of red dots would have done credit to a commercial gallery.

Very many thanks to all concerned, especially the students, Dr. Lisetta Lovett, and Mike Mahon, Fliss Dunn, Paul Clews and the Anatomy team for their help.