The Consciousness of the body

At their heart, my investigations involve the nature of consciousness, especially the consciousness of and in the body. Through the unique circumstances of my life, I’ve gotten to know and feel my body from the inside out, and tune in to its proprioceptive, inner body sensors and signals.

Read the story behind the art

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The story behind the art

I return to the figure, to give context to my anatomy drawings of nerves and neural networks … focusing on the dynamics of movement, the flow of energy, the pressure of gravity.  I began with the visible skeleton; now it’s the spinal cord and nerves I’m making visible beneath the surface of the skin – the anatomical pathways of consciousness.  As I draw my back in the embrace of a lover’s arms, I’m remembering the compelling thrill of the moment: our skin in contact everywhere, his hands on my malformed ribcage, bringing comfort to the compressed spinal nerves (locus of pain) just below. 

In earlier anatomy drawings I investigated the narrowed foraminal spaces between my lumbar vertebrae, where the spinal nerves emerge from the cord to innervate the lower limbs.  Where the curving vertebrae had become wedge-shaped, and discs were worn away, these nerves were constricted.

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But my spinal cord itself was protected by the linked vertebrae, within the bony canal – or so I thought.  As walking became more difficult, an MRI showed that my spinal cord and nerves were also being impinged on within the canal.  I compare the new MR images to the more familiar CT scans (now 12 years old!), and search my anatomy books for more detailed photographs of spinal cord dissections.  

How does it look in there? As my spinal nerves branch away and exit from the canal, what pathways do they follow?  Is this another example of the body’s creativity, as it strives to maintain balance?  My most recent work (featured in this gallery) investigates these questions … and I continue to explore them in the new work that’s currently on my drawing board.


More: On the drawing board - what I’m working on now

Next gallery: Inner space (nerve landscapes)

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