Wild Onions Online

A journal of creative writing, photography, and visual art created by members of the entire Penn State College of Medicine and Hershey Medical Center community

Chet Davis – Visiting Pappy

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Judge’s Choice – Art
Patient Category

A Charcoal drawing of a family sitting together on a couch hands folded with the family dog also posing for the picture. Judge’s Comments: Anchoring the scene, the right and left figures, presumably the father and mother, direct their attention to the object of gathering together: the family is “Visiting Pappy.” All of the subjects are externally quiet, even the unassuming dog. Our eye moves around this well-composed drawing from one portrait to the next. In somber postures, a scene of inner disquiet ensues through the overlaid expression of the agitated lines of the figures. Does the family anxiously await their visit, do they sit and listen to the same story, retold numerous times, or silently witness an illness or death? The blurred subtlety of the portraits imply slight shifts of glance; however, all are held in place by rapt attention to their task. We are placed in their direct line of sight, yet cloistered because these figures do not reach out, do not focus completely. How keenly felt is the lack of touch! Although the subjects are so close they are touching one another, each remains isolated, not contacting one another through holding hands or the consolation of an arm around a shoulder. No, there is a stoicism in the visit this family is engaged in, but the lack of precise focus in the figure drawing suggests an emotional disquiet and unease in the situation, yet a steadfast fidelity by their very presence. How richly the artist has touched the page, caressing emotion in stillness and manifesting the inner thoughts and reality each of the subjects must experience through variety of line.

Visiting Pappy
© Chet Davis
Judge’s Choice Art – Patient Category

Judge’s Comments:
Anchoring the scene, the right and left figures, presumably the father and mother, direct their attention to the object of gathering together: the family is “Visiting Pappy.” All of the subjects are externally quiet, even the unassuming dog. Our eye moves around this well-composed drawing from one portrait to the next.
In somber postures, a scene of inner disquiet ensues through the overlaid expression of the agitated lines of the figures. Does the family anxiously await their visit, do they sit and listen to the same story, retold numerous times, or silently witness an illness or death? The blurred subtlety of the portraits imply slight shifts of glance; however, all are held in place by rapt attention to their task. We are placed in their direct line of sight, yet cloistered because these figures do not reach out, do not focus completely. How keenly felt is the lack of touch! Although the subjects are so close they are touching one another, each remains isolated, not contacting one another through holding hands or the consolation of an arm around a shoulder. No, there is a stoicism in the visit this family is engaged in, but the lack of precise focus in the figure drawing suggests an emotional disquiet and unease in the situation, yet a steadfast fidelity by their very presence. How richly the artist has touched the page, caressing emotion in stillness and manifesting the inner thoughts and reality each of the subjects must experience through variety of line.

Shengchen Lin, PhD – Golden City Sunset

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Judge’s Choice – Art
Faculty and Healthcare Providers Category

acrylic horizontal painting in yellows blues and reds. This is an abstract painting of a Golden City Sunsetwith a hard verticle line from top to bottom on the right third of the painitng strong yellow hues are on the right side of this line. The left side is separated by a hard horizontal line one side mirroring the other in shades of light blue and pink

Golden City Sunset
© Shengchen Lin, PhD | Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology

Judge’s Comments:
The title, “Golden City Sunset,” suggests structures reflecting off water as a pastel sky bids farewell to a blazing last punctuation of the day’s bright light. This painting is an abstract treatment of a brilliant impression.
Could this be Jaisalmer on Gadisar lake in Rajasthan, India, known for its yellow sandstone and beautiful sunsets? Or perhaps we are viewing San Francisco from Port Oakland? Possibly the Maiden’s Tower of Sküdar, Istanbul, Turkey? Whichever “Golden City” we are transported to, the variety of color and texture give the notion of blurred and airy spaces with a bold and defining central structural focus through both impasto and gradient blending. This work emanates a sense of awe and wonder that the artist has captured for our own vibrant and rapturous experience.

Elizabeth Raoof – Losing Touch

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Judge’s Choice – Art Student/Resident Category

This digital paiting depicts a female medical professional blankly gazing at the artist with an expressionless face. Her mask is pulled down around her neck, and her long dark hair pulled back from her face. She is a caucasian woman with dark hollow eyes wearing a purple gown and is placed in the middle of the frame and in front of a dark green background.

Losing Touch
© Elizabeth Raoof | MSIV
Judge’s Choice – Art – Student / Resident Category

Judge’s Comments:
Have you ever felt just numb?
Executed as a digital painting/drawing, the portrait “Losing Touch” insinuates there once was sympathy, energy, and will. Eyes prepared for the day’s work with mascara, eyebrows drawn in just-so, flyaway hairs in brunette and auburn hues surround her ears after taking off the face mask, a painted lip revealed, ever so slightly pursed as the thought of what has transpired gives way to a final expression: resolve waning. Accentuated by broad, aggressive facial strokes to express light and dark, it is obvious this woman has grit, but perhaps it is not so immutable as once before.
Confronted by the gaze of the subject, if willing to meet those eyes, deep multitudes of emotion surface. In recent experience, one might recognize instantly what has been dubbed “pandemic fatigue.” Results are physical and mental tiredness, loneliness, worry, extreme sadness, dejectedness at losing another patient, or even lack of compassion for those who unnecessarily perished after avoiding vaccination, a preventable loss. Or maybe we see a more timeless and particular burden of women, caring for others at work, and at home, pressured still to out-perform male counterparts, all while expressing an acutely feminine empathy. Is the expectation too crushing? Meet her eyes and confront your own thoughts and emotions. Take 60 seconds and see what is elicited from within—are you losing touch, too?

Gary Gasowski, MD – Still Touching

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Judge’s Choice for Best Themed Art

This is a painting of a house porch withs a green door on the right side of the painting and a window with an empty bench in the middle of the painting. The bench is large enough to hold 2 people. Leaning up against the right side of the bench are 2 walking sticks. touching each other. On the left side of the painting beyond the porch, the artist has included a depictoin of a full moon set withing a dark blue sky with pine shrubs in the forground.

Still Touching
© Gary Gasowski, MD | Penn State College of Medicine Alumnus, 1972

Judge’s Comments:
This piece encompasses a whole story in a still image. Two walking staffs overlying each other in the pale glow of moonlight. The touch of the material hints at the overlap their owners likely have. The idea of touch in this setting is both physical and metaphorical, bound to the past, present and future.

Julie Orris – Eye Contact

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Judge’s Choice for Art –
Staff and Family Members Category

Judge’s Comments: This is a wonderfully executed watercolor! Watercolor is a challenging media to accurately master, and within the work shown here we see excellent treatment of the modeling of skin tone and surface, including the five-o-clock-shadow of the man’s jaw, the ripples and wrinkles of the collared shirt and romper, the sparse soft hair of the infant and the slightly receding thick mane of the man. The painting harkens to a masculine version of Mary Cassatt in Norman Rockwell style. The high contrast of the well-lit figures against the dark background leaves nothing to distract from the pure enjoyment of the work, focusing attention on the tender gaze shared between the two figures: so familiar with one another, glad to have been reunited. The delightful joy of a content child, reaching out to explore the rapt attention of an adult in adoration of sweetness embodied, can’t help but bring a smile to the observer’s face as well.

Eye Contact
© Julie Orris, MOA | Camp Hill—Family Health
Judge’s Choice for Art – Staff and Family Members Category

Judge’s Comments:
This is a wonderfully executed watercolor! Watercolor is a challenging media to accurately master, and within the work shown here we see excellent treatment of the modeling of skin tone and surface, including the five-o-clock-shadow of the man’s jaw, the ripples and wrinkles of the collared shirt and romper, the sparse soft hair of the infant and the slightly receding thick mane of the man. The painting harkens to a masculine version of Mary Cassatt in Norman Rockwell style. The high contrast of the well-lit figures against the dark background leaves nothing to distract from the pure enjoyment of the work, focusing attention on the tender gaze shared between the two figures: so familiar with one another, glad to have been reunited. The delightful joy of a content child, reaching out to explore the rapt attention of an adult in adoration of sweetness embodied, can’t help but bring a smile to the observer’s face as well.

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