BMC alum wins student writing competition

Stefania Spano received the good news last December in the kitchen as she enjoyed some therapeutic post-exams baking with her mom.

The Biomedical Communications graduate’s graphic story Out of Service took first place in the Dalhousie University Department of Psychiatry’s Annual Student Writing Competition 2012.

“I was thrilled,” said Spano. “Healthcare is a very dynamic, interdisciplinary and multiplayer experience and graphic medicine is a potent tool for communicating that experience.”

Spano learned of the competition through a notice distributed to her class in early October at Queen’s University where she now studies medicine.

Dalhousie’s competition invites Canadian medical students and residents to submit essays, poetry or short fiction to explain the intersection of mental health and the humanities.

Spano wrote and illustrated Out of Service which explores the Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) experience through visual storytelling as part of the “Comics & Medicine” course taught by BMC Faculty, Dr. Shelley Wall.

“Stefania’s beautifully-drawn comic tells the story of a Vietnam veteran’s struggles with post-traumatic stress and its impact on his family,” said Wall. “She uses the comic form to great effect, telling some parts of the story wordlessly through the juxtaposition of images, the selective use of colour, and the characters’ facial expressions and body language.”

In the last decade, “graphic medicine”—as this growing body of work has come to be known—has received increased interest from medical and nursing practitioners, patients and families, literary and cultural studies scholars and teachers in medical humanities as an important resource for the communication of a range of medical issues, said Wall.

Spano said she intends to invest her $100 prize in that most fashionable of options—to give it to her landlady.

by Maeve Doyle

BMC graduates’ work featured in JVCM gallery

The Journal of Visual Communication in Medicine (JVCM) featured Class of 2012 graduates Andrea Gauthier’s textbook illustration project and Lyndsay Stephenson’s neuroanatomy project in the Gallery of their December 2012 issue.

Carbon dust drawing: Historic technique informs the future

The Biomedical Communications graduate students train in Anatomy and Human Embryology with the University of Toronto medical students over the first 10 weeks of the program. At the same time, they learn carbon dust drawing to produce clinical images suitable for textbooks from which medical students learn.

Pioneered in the early 1900s by Max Brödel, the father of modern medical illustration, the technique makes medical, gray-scale, tonal illustrations look like living tissue and it reproduced well in an era of only black and white printing.

“This technique lends itself well to surgery,” said Biomedical Communications Associate Professor David Mazierski who teaches the Textbook Illustration portion of Anatomy.

Mazierski takes the first-year students to Grant’s Museum in the Division of Anatomy on the University of Toronto’s St. George campus. There, they make sketches from the dissection specimens using ordinary graphite pencils. The students return to the Biomedical Communications’ studio in the nearby Fitzgerald Building and transfer their sketches to the final board—a paper with texture or “tooth” that holds the carbon dust.

To transfer the sketch, students rub the back of the sketch with carbon pencil. They place the sketch onto the board and trace over it to leave a faint transfer of the drawing. They go over the transfer with the carbon pencil to strengthen the outlines and to add shading lines and detail, said Mazierski. Next, students brush over the drawing with a soft flat paintbrush to lighten it. They sharpen their carbon pencil points on sandpaper and collect the dust in a small box. They dip soft watercolour brushes into the carbon dust and brush tone onto the surface of the paper.

“The thing about carbon dust is that it is very forgiving,” said first-year Biomedical Communications student Andrew Tran.

Students can lighten tone with a piece of chamois cloth, add to their drawing or add more dust. They create highlights by removing tone or even erasing all the way back to the board. They add small, sharply defined dots of white paint to create a specular highlight to depict the reflection of a light source in a wet surface. Oily fat tissues reflect light. Specular highlights can depict this in drawings, said Tran. “You add a lot more light onto fat tissue to indicate that it is shiny.”

In addition to learning this technique, Tran said he now sees shadow differently and is more aware of how light reflects from an object.

In an era of digital painting and illustrating tools, carbon dust drawing still teaches vital observational and representational skills.

“Learning this technique is a link with the history of medical and scientific illustration,” said Mazierski, “and a foundation for the students as they advance to computer graphics and other forms of visual communication.”

by Maeve Doyle

U of T Mississauga Magazine features Comics & Medicine

Winter 2013 issue of U of T Mississauga Magazine just released.

Read the great story about Comics & Medicine that features faculty Shelley Wall and includes a reproduction of alumna Natalia Burachynsky’s MRP comic on page 30.

And flip to to the Bulletin Board on page 33 where alumni Kerri Weller and Paul Kelly are pinned.

Sock Monkeys and Smiles

Following this semester’s Winter Critique, BMC faculty, students and guests adjourned to the Faculty Club for a festive lunch and some charitable works.

Karyn Ho, a first year student in the Biomedical Communications Program, organized a sock monkey workshop. Through Operation Sock Monkey, the cuddly toys will find their way to children displaced by Superstorm Sandy.

“Not only did we create 16 adorable sock monkeys and fully recover the cost of materials, but we also raised an incredible $170 – and counting – to sponsor cleft lip/palate repair,” said Ho. “If we hit $250, we will be able to sponsor one complete surgery.”

For $5, students and faculty constructed and donated a monkey to Operation Sock Monkey or for $20 adopted a monkey to take home.

Since 2005, Operation Sock Monkey has brought smiles and laughter to promote healing through joy to communities around the world affected by disease, disaster and social/political turmoil. And, while the sock monkeys make smiles, the funds raised will be donated to ‘Smile Train’. Smile Train provides free cleft surgery to hundreds of thousands of poor children in developing countries.

If you would like to help BMC reach the $250 goal, please email maeve.doyle@utoronto.ca before January 11, 2013.

BMCAA UnCon November 10

BMCAA UnCon November 10! Be sure to attend the 4th annual BMCAA UnCon. Get together with your fellow alumni for a day of inspiration, innovation, and fun. We’re looking forward to seeing you there.

Saturday, November 10th, 2012
10am-3pm
Room 1200 Bahen Building, UofT St. George Campus
Cost: Alumni $10, Students PWYC, Presenters free
Coffee and Lunch provided

Attendees

To help plan our food order, please RSVP by:

Going to this wiki page:
https://bmc.erin.utoronto.ca/uncon2012

Logging in with the following:
U: alumnus
P:5har34fun!

Adding your name to the list. Thanks!

Interested in Presenting?

We are currently looking for people interested in presenting/speaking. Let us know the general topic and length of time you would like (maximum 20 min., unless you have a special request).

BMCAA Elections and Annual General Meeting

Getting involved with the BMCAA is a great way to maintain relationships and keep up to date with the field. Get in touch with us (bmcaa@utoronto.ca) if you’d like more information on any of the positions or duties.

We will be electing the following positions:
Co-Presidents (2)
Fundraising Coordinator
Secretary
Treasurer

Two weeks left to see “Splice” exhibit

Less than 2 weeks left to see “Splice: At the Intersection of Art and Medicine”. The exhibit runs until December 1, 2012.

Selections from BMC’s historical art collection are featured at both exhibition sites:

Blackwood Gallery at UTM and University of Toronto Art Centre (UTAC) at St. George: http://www.utac.utoronto.ca/current-exhibitions/275-splice-at-the-intersection-of-art-and-medicine

At the same time, UTAC’s Art Lounge exhibits “In the Service of Science: Student Work from the Graduate Program in Biomedical Communications, UTM” curated by BMC faculty, Dave Mazierski and Shelley Wall.

Splice: At the Intersection of Art & Medicine exhibit

Splice Exhibit Opens October 24 at the Blackwood Gallery. The art exhibit runs from October 24-December 1, 2012 and features selections from BMC’s historical art collection.