Similar to the previous work, the name of this piece also has both literal and figurative meaning. Slice of Life takes place in Schuylkill River Park from the perspective of the person sitting on the rightmost bench of Panorama of Life. As I assume the position of this man, I see the park from his vantage point. One source of inspiration for this piece was the idea that each of us can take our own “slice” of what life has to offer. For instance, the only person depicted in this drawing sits by himself on the bench, enjoying his day at the park in peaceful solitude.
However, all life is, of course, interconnected, and this is symbolized by the intertwined root system of the trees beneath this man. This piece was, in part, inspired by the “Mechanisms of Disease and Therapeutic Intervention” (MDTI) course we took in the spring semester of our first year, in which we often compared microscopic images of healthy and pathological human tissue. In Slice of Life, not only are the tree branches in cross-section, but also their roots and the roots of the neighboring grass. Relating to the theme of the Fall issue, “Enigma,” medical researchers have often searched for answers in nature for life’s most difficult questions. Some of these answers have come from analyzing human tissue with microscopes to identify the changes associated with diseases, which allowed us to identify the causes and possible treatments for many medical conditions.
