Anatomical Artwork relates to a creative and often imaginative approach to depicting the body’s organs using historical, cultural, physiological and anatomical context.  Ever since man hunted he learned that the body was made of organs.  The intrigue with the normal and abnormal appearance of the organs has lasted centuries and continues to intrigue and inspire.  Ignorance and folklore led cultures to believe that some organs had special supernatural powers. The liver, for example, was thought to have the powers to predict the outcome of war, produce blood, provide heat and moisture, and create an easy going, happy, and generous personality.  Although air was known to be essential to life, the function of the lungs was not understood to be the site of air exchange.  The arteries were thought to transport air.  The lungs were believed to produce phlegm, responsible for cold and moisture in the body and associated with personality traits of sluggishness, timidity and fearfulness.  The gallbladder was considered to be hot and dry and produce a vapor that led to introspection and sentimentality.  The spleen was responsible for coldness and dryness, and reflected an ambitious, short-tempered, and violent personality

The heart was considered central to life and morality by the Egyptians, and the seat of intelligence and source of body heat by Aristotle.  He also believed that it was the first organ to be developed and the last to show life before death. The early Egyptian cultures gave little credence to the brain.  They discarded the brain in the embalming process since they did not believe it had any meaningful function.  Plato and later Greek philosophers believed that the brain was responsible for higher intellectual functions. The pancreas was so named because it was incorrectly thought to consist of meat (pan = “all” and “creas= “meat”).  The pancreas has also been called hermit of the abdomen due to its seemingly lonely existence. The cultural history of the organs provides the artist with a rich and colorful palette from which to create historically interesting and meaningful works of art.

As the true nature of anatomy unfolded with anatomic dissection, the structures were identified and described within the realm of the culture.   If a structure reminded the anatomist of a smaller version of another structure in the body it was named accordingly.  For example we have cerebellum (little brain), mammillary bodies (breasts), auricle (little ear), and cilia (hair eyelash).  Shapes of the structures often were named according to other structures with similar form.  Hook like structures were found in the uncinate process of the pancreas, uncus in the brain, and cornu in the uterus.  The cochlea of the middle ear, with its Fibonacci design, was reminiscent of a snails’ shell. Structures named after animals included the arachnoid (spider), cauda equina (tail of a horse at the end of the spinal cord), caudate nucleus of the brain, and caudate lobe of the liver (tail), penis (tail), coccyx (cuckoo), muscle (little mouse), and hippocampus (sea monster, combination  horse and dolphin).  Structures reminiscent of food products include the placenta (flat cake), pyriform sinus (pear shaped), vagina (sheath of a corn husk) and amygdala (almond).

Structures from nature include the tip or glans (acorn) of the penis, arbor vitae in the cerebellum (tree of life) and folium (leaf).  The tree-like structures of the body hold special beauty.  Branching structures include arteries, veins, capillaries, lymphatics, airway system, ductal systems (bile duct, pancreatic duct, and lactiferous ducts of the breast).  These all have arborizing patterns that combine the inner beauty with the beauty of nature that surrounds us.

Anatomically the organs are defined by their parts, size, shape, position, character, and connections to the rest of the body via vascular lymphatic, neurohormonal, and connective tissue elements.
The combination of structure and function in an art piece may highlight the metabolic factories in the liver, right and left functions in the brain, moods of the brain, pumps in the heart, pulling together or collaboration of syncitial in cardiac myocytes, kneading function of the colon, transport functions of the tubes of the body, protective function of the skin and membranes, and supportive function of the bones ligaments and tendons.

The organization of the organs, their interconnectivity by lifelines, and collaborative function expose the miracle of life through the concept “ units to unity,” enabling transcendence to the mind and soul of the person.

Anatomical Artwork relates to a creative and often imaginative approach to depicting the body’s organs using historical, cultural, physiological and anatomical context.  Ever since man hunted he learned that the body was made of organs.  The intrigue with the normal and abnormal appearance of the organs has lasted centuries and continues to intrigue and inspire.  Ignorance and folklore led cultures to believe that some organs had special supernatural powers. The liver, for example, was thought to have the powers to predict the outcome of war, produce blood, provide heat and moisture, and create an easy going, happy, and generous personality.  Although air was known to be essential to life, the function of the lungs was not understood to be the site of air exchange.  The arteries were thought to transport air.  The lungs were believed to produce phlegm, responsible for cold and moisture in the body and associated with personality traits of sluggishness, timidity and fearfulness.  The gallbladder was considered to be hot and dry and produce a vapor that led to introspection and sentimentality.  The spleen was responsible for coldness and dryness, and reflected an ambitious, short-tempered, and violent personality

The heart was considered central to life and morality by the Egyptians, and the seat of intelligence and source of body heat by Aristotle.  He also believed that it was the first organ to be developed and the last to show life before death. The early Egyptian cultures gave little credence to the brain.  They discarded the brain in the embalming process since they did not believe it had any meaningful function.  Plato and later Greek philosophers believed that the brain was responsible for higher intellectual functions. The pancreas was so named because it was incorrectly thought to consist of meat (pan = “all” and “creas= “meat”).  The pancreas has also been called hermit of the abdomen due to its seemingly lonely existence. The cultural history of the organs provides the artist with a rich and colorful palette from which to create historically interesting and meaningful works of art.

As the true nature of anatomy unfolded with anatomic dissection, the structures were identified and described within the realm of the culture.   If a structure reminded the anatomist of a smaller version of another structure in the body it was named accordingly.  For example we have cerebellum (little brain), mammillary bodies (breasts), auricle (little ear), and cilia (hair eyelash).  Shapes of the structures often were named according to other structures with similar form.  Hook like structures were found in the uncinate process of the pancreas, uncus in the brain, and cornu in the uterus.  The cochlea of the middle ear, with its Fibonacci design, was reminiscent of a snails’ shell. Structures named after animals included the arachnoid (spider), cauda equina (tail of a horse at the end of the spinal cord), caudate nucleus of the brain, and caudate lobe of the liver (tail), penis (tail), coccyx (cuckoo), muscle (little mouse), and hippocampus (sea monster, combination  horse and dolphin).  Structures reminiscent of food products include the placenta (flat cake), pyriform sinus (pear shaped), vagina (sheath of a corn husk) and amygdala (almond).

Structures from nature include the tip or glans (acorn) of the penis, arbor vitae in the cerebellum (tree of life) and folium (leaf).  The tree-like structures of the body hold special beauty.  Branching structures include arteries, veins, capillaries, lymphatics, airway system, ductal systems (bile duct, pancreatic duct, and lactiferous ducts of the breast).  These all have arborizing patterns that combine the inner beauty with the beauty of nature that surrounds us.

Anatomically the organs are defined by their parts, size, shape, position, character, and connections to the rest of the body via vascular lymphatic, neurohormonal, and connective tissue elements.
The combination of structure and function in an art piece may highlight the metabolic factories in the liver, right and left functions in the brain, moods of the brain, pumps in the heart, pulling together or collaboration of syncitial in cardiac myocytes, kneading function of the colon, transport functions of the tubes of the body, protective function of the skin and membranes, and supportive function of the bones ligaments and tendons.

The organization of the organs, their interconnectivity by lifelines, and collaborative function expose the miracle of life through the concept “ units to unity,” enabling transcendence to the mind and soul of the person.