Not too bad at the beginning. Lung cancer routinely spreads to the brain. Symptoms creep up slowly. A little more weakness on the right side, inability to get the words out, a bit more incoordination. Falling. Then the medical imaging confirms the spread.

Most of us can touch our noses with our finger with our eyes closed. There are circuits in the brain that work together to allow that to happen.  It doesn’t happen if they are disrupted. Cancer disrupts.

My study below is an attempt to represent ravages of the brain and its consequences: weakness on one side and problems with coordination.  My representation of the brain is two different views pasted together: a horizontal section of the cerebrum (from the eyebrows to the back of the head) and a vertical section of the brain stem (a plane parallel to one that passes from ear to ear).

Neuro Exam
9″x12″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Block

I allow my compositions to rest for a while and revisit them later. It was only after a second look did I realize that it was very much like one of the compositions supervised by Vesalius, a 16th century anatomist and physician.

From Vesalius

The image above is not the one I remember, but the only one I could find on the spur of the moment.