It’s been a happy and moving week in my world, full of reconnection with old souls and new kinds of feedback. This is because I finally started telling the truth. My high school alumni magazine was curious about Arts Practica, and, because they were most familiar with the 14-year old, braces-mouthed-nerd who hid out in […]Continue Reading
ArchivesCategory: Arts Training
09JanFresh Eyes
“Let the familiar become strange and the strange familiar — the two rules of creativity.” –Sam Keen, 1991 One of my best collaborators in the work of art-viewing lives with extreme visual impairment. One of the things I appreciate about working with him is the renewed sense of focus on what the work is […]Continue Reading
25SepWhy do the arts matter to medicine?
Short answer: because creative skills are essential to successful medical practice; they are easily and authentically learned in art. See below for some key studies that inform my opinion that quality clinician attention may be healthcare’s greatest resource, and art has a role in the development of quality attention. Long answer: Watch a video of a panel […]Continue Reading
02JunThe difference between saying what you see and deciding what it is
Is big. Is a lapsezone. Sometimes we have to describe what we are not sure we are looking at. It can be tempting to diagnose it while describing, especially if technical parlance is available for some of what we see. Diagnostic word-choice is dangerous decision-making. It can rule things out too early. Description is work. […]Continue Reading
14MayFor the Arts + Ed Students: Take your own advice
Here’s an untrue story: your very first career move should somehow gel identity, passions, goals, location, finances, family planning, everything, in one high-speed precision job-landing. Funny how students know that’s not true, but can be prone to believing it anyway. Funny how believing it is a quick road to feelings of yuckiness (not to mention a time-suck). Funny how students training in […]Continue Reading
02MayWhat’s an aesthetic perspective?
I offer an aesthetic perspective. Nope, that’s not to say that I can advise you on decisions involving your hair length or your wardrobe (in fact, I could really use your help in those areas). It means I have experience in making art and responding to it, and training in how to see— and that […]Continue Reading
01MayWhy I Love Teaching/Learning Observation
Hi and welcome! I’m happy to have you here. For the most part, this blog is going to be about observation, an arts-based skill, in the context of medicine. Teaching observation as a professional skill is what I have been doing for much of the last ten years. Teaching it, and learning about its genesis and […]Continue Reading
