Marsha L. Heck
Within 6 months, my body and I underwent a series of medical and surgical procedures. In the world of metaphor and energetic views of the body, all my surgeries had to do with my creative and literal voice…my self-expression in the world. And, nearly all of these interventions were the result of uterine pathologies. Doctors in the same practice, examining the same body, and looking at the same data, recommended different treatments.

Creativity is my lifeblood. Visual art and writing is how that blood flows and comes alive. At many levels, in many layers, I explore and make concrete, or even corporeal, both literal and symbolic elements of my lifeblood, in particular the recent intensity our relationship as we transformed through needles and knives, bleeding and healing. My work for this exhibit provided a means for me to work through the implications of what was happening to my body at a physical level, as well as the emotional, psychosocial, spiritual, and symbolic implications.

I had fun exploring visual and word plays about my symptoms and medical procedures as well as my experience with the medical system. I playfully anthropomorphized the “foreign” tissues in my body and created sculptures that stood alone aesthetically—as if distinct from the preceding context. When lingering on the image, or reading the title/text of the piece, however viewers are provoked in some cases to consider their outlook on the medical industry; and in all the work invited to consider their thinking about women’s health, as well as the interrelationships of their own wellness, pathology, or life’s blood.

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