Tremendous amounts of medical knowledge and love go into treating a patient who is a care receiver. This graphite-ink artwork, named Patient, explains my metaphorical view on how a patient may feel—inspired by Arthur Kleinman’s piece, “Catastrophe and Caregiving: The Failure of Medicine as an Art”.
        Patient is a symbolic piece. Even in its name, “patient” refers to not only the title of the care received, but how they must behave during their recovery process – staying patient and keeping faith. The “patient” is depicted as a personified tree: a metaphor of growth that one experiences in life. The skeleton encased inside the tree humanizes the symbol, expressing the desire to continue living and growing despite illness.
        In this piece, I highlight how illness can stall and trap one’s life in moments of always reaching, always waiting, and always practicing patience to get better. It’s a difficult “in-between” space to occupy, and most of our culture tends to focus on the final goal of recovering. So, I highlight the difficulties that exist between the initial state of sickness and the hoped for, eventual return to health.

Cited Sources
Kleinman, Arthur. “Catastrophe and Caregiving: The Failure of Medicine as an Art.” The Lancet 371, no. 9606 (2008): 22–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(08)60057-4.