Artist Statement
This work is an attempt to reconcile the vibrance of life as evidenced by the colorful collage and bismuth crystal with death, which is portrayed by a somber skull emerging from an aorta and ventricles of a human heart. Understanding the temporal nature of our existence is key to subtle references to beauty and imperfection latent in the background of this image to cue the idea of beauty in life and death to the viewer.
Recommended Citation
Koleng, Marianne
(2024)
"To Which We Return,"
be Still: Vol. 8, Article 14.
Available at:
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/bestill/vol8/iss1/14
Included in
Aesthetics Commons, Art Practice Commons, Epistemology Commons, Fine Arts Commons, Illustration Commons, Medical Humanities Commons, Painting Commons
About the Artist
I am Marianne Koleng, a first-year medical student at Nova Southeastern University - KPCOM.
My journey to becoming a physician has been at many times non-linear, but it is worth all the uncertainty and flux. I hope as a future physician I can help patients become comfortable in their own skin and be seen a human beings "All Entire" - to quote the French poet, Charles Baudelaire. I graduated from the University of Texas in Austin with majors in Economics, Government, Finance, and Philosophy and I am currently pursuing my concurrent M.S. in Nutrition whilst in KPCOM. I am excited and honored to be able to intertwine my love (and background) in the humanities with that of medicine.