Self-Portrait
Faculty Mentor
Joshua Hobson
Presentation Type
Creative Work
Start Date
May 2025
End Date
May 2025
Location
Art Building Gallery
Primary Discipline of Presentation
Art
Abstract
Artist Statement
The charcoal drawing shows my left arm in a supine, or lying on your back with your arm extended beside your body. There is a tourniquet tied around my bicep. My ungloved hands perform a blood draw on my arm using a butterfly needle and a syringe. There is a flash of blood running from the tube of the needle to the syringe, but the plunger of the needle is pulled, possibly in a struggle to draw the blood further. Bruises are along my arm, suggesting I have undergone this procedure many times.
Bruising and bleeding are the symptoms of injury. It is the sickness that hurts. Healing is not associated with things like bruising or bleeding, but that is the symptom of being in the hospital, healing. I fear this pain, as many people do. Being poked or prodded, dependent on people you have never met, and lying in an unfamiliar bed for days. The reality of many people’s journeys to healing is painful. Self-Portrait, 2025, is a take on a self-portrait that depicts the unexpected damage that is associated with inpatient hospital care that I see, contribute to, and am fearful of as a phlebotomist in an inpatient care setting.
Kenzie Thompson, 2025.
Recommended Citation
Thompson, McKenzie, "Self-Portrait" (2025). 2025 Symposium. 11.
https://dc.ewu.edu/srcw_2025/cw_2025/art_2025/11
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Self-Portrait
Art Building Gallery
Artist Statement
The charcoal drawing shows my left arm in a supine, or lying on your back with your arm extended beside your body. There is a tourniquet tied around my bicep. My ungloved hands perform a blood draw on my arm using a butterfly needle and a syringe. There is a flash of blood running from the tube of the needle to the syringe, but the plunger of the needle is pulled, possibly in a struggle to draw the blood further. Bruises are along my arm, suggesting I have undergone this procedure many times.
Bruising and bleeding are the symptoms of injury. It is the sickness that hurts. Healing is not associated with things like bruising or bleeding, but that is the symptom of being in the hospital, healing. I fear this pain, as many people do. Being poked or prodded, dependent on people you have never met, and lying in an unfamiliar bed for days. The reality of many people’s journeys to healing is painful. Self-Portrait, 2025, is a take on a self-portrait that depicts the unexpected damage that is associated with inpatient hospital care that I see, contribute to, and am fearful of as a phlebotomist in an inpatient care setting.
Kenzie Thompson, 2025.
