Philadelphia School of Medicine: He unzipped a long black bag that concealed a human body the medical students had been working with to better understand the mechanics human anatomy. The Doctor in front of us sets a tone of respect and reverence for the experience we are about to share, to draw from the cadavers.

I am anxious to ask him to show us the hand because I recently severed the tendons in my right hand and was really curious about that part of the body I just spent 6 months healing. Before I can ask though, another artist asks him if she could see the appendix. It turns out that everyone wanted to see the part of the body that gave them problems. This curiosity about ourselves was far stronger than the cold and the odor of the cadaver room. Curiosity was the driving force behind our drawings. I pulled the tendon of the forearm watching the now lifeless fingers curl toward a fist. Incredible. We did some preliminary drawing and were invited to return the next day.

That night I looked through Leonardo DaVinci’s cadaver drawings marveling at how he used hatch lines to create space and volume.

The next day, I was the only student to return. The Doctor left me alone in the lab to unzip the bags myself and follow my curiosity, I spent the next four hours with my 18” x 24” sketchbook drawing.