During Spring Quarter, the Stanford Arts Institute will be profiling the 2014–15 Honors in the Arts cohort. This interdisciplinary honors program allows students in any major to complete a capstone project integrating arts practice or theory with another field of study, To learn more, visit artsinstitute.stanford.edu/honors.
To pass on information about a patient, doctors create concise summaries of patients’ medical backgrounds—“case presentations,” as they are called. Such is the working title of senior Ryoko Hamaguchi’s Honors in the Arts project, which is created at the intersection of art and medicine, the personal and the medical. “Using ‘Case Presentation’ as my title is an ironic twist because what I’m trying to accomplish through my work is to convey aspects of a patient’s life that aren’t captured in case presentations—the things that are less visible, or purposely kept invisible in the medical sphere,” Hamaguchi said.
“My goal [for the project] is to apply both the personal and the science, because they’re both integral to being a physician.”
“Case Presentation” is made of three parts, each of which marks a different point of view of science, as well as a different stage of Hamaguchi’s path to medicine.
The first section is a series of portraits of cells in watercolor. “I wanted to pick cells I had worked with, that I had seen up close,” Hamaguchi said. Among them are heart cells and neuron cells, which she had gotten to study both in class and in research. She also includes, however, cells she has only seen images of—for instance, a T-cell—which she finds beautiful and complex. This portion of “Case Presentation” allowed her to “reflect on the roots” of her interest in medicine, the “hard-science aspects.”
The second section, aimed toward capturing the narrative aspect of medicine, is made of portraits, something she had always enjoyed in her own artwork. “I’ve always been drawn to the human face—seeing someone’s face when interacting with them, trying to capture that person’s unique personal expression,” Hamaguchi said. These portraits are of a friend with cystic fibrosis and required a lung transplant, and the other of her friend’s lung donor. “She’s always talked about that connection and wanted to make her donor’s presence public to express her gratitude,” Hamaguchi said. “In a way, this is what this section is for.”
“Her diagnosis wasn’t just about the happy-sad dichotomy—she was frustrated, angry, shameful. I wanted to capture the complex emotions she was feeling.”
The third section is the culmination of the first and second sections, the projection of what she wants in her own career in medicine manifested in a collection of complex watercolors and ink sketches.
“My goal [for the project] is to apply both the personal and the science, because they’re both integral to being a physician,” she said. “You can’t just be involved in the science aspect, and at the same time, you can’t just interact on a purely personal level.”
One of her pieces, for instance, is inspired by a woman diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, whom she had met while volunteering at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, a program she has been part of since freshman year. In her brief moments speaking with the woman, the woman had told Hamaguchi about living with her diagnosis—a transition from complete independence of self to dependence on family members and friends. “Her diagnosis wasn’t just about the happy-sad dichotomy—she was frustrated, angry, shameful,” Hamaguchi said. “I wanted to capture the complex emotions she was feeling.”
The piece is a side profile of a woman—lips turned down, tense; eyes closed, creases stretching from the corners of her lids—over a depiction of a cluster of neurons, white stars and stems splayed in a black background. The brain is illustrated, coiled within the woman’s skull. Overlaid the painting is an ink drawing of a neuron slice. For Hamaguchi, this piece is the essence of what she hoped to incorporate into these artworks.
“This project was a chance to incorporate and reflect on a lot of things that were important to me in my undergraduate career,” Hamaguchi said. “It’s nice to be able to create a tangible record of these things I care about, and bring forth as I graduate.”
As a collection of art, for Hamaguchi, this was her first time painting works around a specific theme. “The project has also added to my confidence as an artist,” she said. “I want to continue art as a side aspect of my life, and if I have this collection to work off of, I’m going to be more confident in creating works like these.”
