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This illustration demonstrates a rectovaginal fistula repair with a biological material plug. The procedure repairs a fistula or hole between the vagina and rectum. This illustration was created for a medical device manufacturer’s marketing and educational materials.

The post Rectovaginal Fistula Repair with Biologic Plug appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

Anatomy of Sports Day at the National Museum of Health and Medicine 2015. Group picture of all the participating athletes, illu [...]

Group picture Anatomy of Sports Day 2015 Anatomy of Sports Day at the National Museum of Health and Medicine 2015. Group picture of all the participating athletes, illustrators and physical therapists. It's really not often that you get a request for volunteer medical illustrators. I mean it is rare. So when I got the call for this years Anatomy of Sports Day - I was absolutely on board. This is a great yearly event attended by local area kids and parents. And I get to spend a day in one [...]

DNA Illustrations is starting a newsletter/news blog in 2015 to keep clients we have done business with up to date with our projects, past and present. Alex and I have had a busy year so far and we hope your year is moving along as well. Thank you for letting us share some of our past projects and letting you know what we are working on now. We will share our updates two to three times a year as new and ex [...]

DNA Illustrations is starting a newsletter/news blog in 2015 to keep clients we have done business with up to date with our projects, past and present. Alex and I have had a busy year so far and we hope your year is moving along as well. Thank you for letting us share some of our past projects and letting you know what we are working on now. We will share our updates two to three times a year as new and exciting projects and events happen. Completed: The following highlights some of our complet [...]

The illustration was for a cardiology journal cover article about the endovascular options for the treatment of stroke. It features the internal carotid and cerebral arteries. The post Carotid Artery Blockage Leading to a Stroke appeared first on Clar...

An 80 page catalogue of my work from 2012 to the present is now available for purchase. A very special thanks to John Rennie, Miguel Carter Fisher, and Sandra Rendgen for their thoughtful and beautifully written contributions.You can purchase the bo...

I'm happy to announce I'll be in an upcoming group show at The Curator Gallery in Chelsea. I'll be showing with four artists who also work in encaustic. I'm honored to be showing with these painters. The opening is on Wednesday, July 15th. Please RSVP ...

“One thing is clear; there is no progress in art.”
–Willem DeKooning

Something washes over me when I pick up a piece of charcoal and draw. It’s primal; I feel the distant call of thousands and thousands of years of ancestry. Maybe it’s because charcoal comes from one of our first technologies: the harnessing of fire.

We make paintings and drawings to claim our existence in the world. This is most evident in cave paintings. They are a primeval psychological expression: of grappling with existence in a world vast, mysterious, and inexplicable. This work is not about taming the natural world, as is most later European art; these animals are not “tamed” for our use. This work is about survival; this is why they are so powerful.

For 35,000 years the aesthetics in these paintings were handed down from generation to generation; there is too much consistency in the work to prove otherwise. Think about that for a moment. These artists seemed not to care about “progress.” (Was progress even a notion they had?) I’ve heard people whine that nothing new has been done in the art world for decades. Decades? Compare that with 35,000 years!

We know about geological change taking place over eons. And yet, on the human scale, we think of 35,000 years as an eternity. We think of the paintings as ancient; yet the cave that has been painted upon is virtually unchanged. So when looking at cave paintings one is presented with the paradox of time: thousands of generations passing in the blink of an eye of Mother Earth.

Caves have no right angles. Did Paleolithic man know what a rectangle was? How often would he see a straight line? Perhaps the only time he witnessed a straight line was when looking out onto the ocean’s horizon. Or maybe he noticed the path of a falling object described a straight line. I look up from the rectangular screen of my laptop. I see the rectangle of the doorway into my kitchen; the rectangular windows letting light in. I inhabit a world of rectangles. Yet they are so ubiquitous I am unaware of them. At times I’ve wondered what an alien would see if they were to visit one of our museums. I think they would wonder why there are so many rectangles on the walls.

I was going to write that we’re prisoners of the rectangle. But something is giving me pause. When I look at a Mondrian a calm comes over me. I’m witnessing the sacredness of the horizontal and vertical line. These straight lines hint at the perfection of physics, or at least how we experience physics: the up and down force of gravity; the horizontal line of stasis and rest. The right angle is a symbol of the sacred union of the activity of gravity and the stasis of rest.

In cave painting we’re witnessing the mystery and wonder of the physical world. In Mondrian we’re witnessing the mystery of the laws that govern the physical world. The subject is irrelevant. What is relevant is the mystery. The awe. The incomprehension and the inexplicable.

The finite mind tries to grasp the infinite and is left peering into the paradox of existence.

“Let the poet dream his dreams. Yet, the poet must look at the world; must enter into other men’s lives; must look at the earth and the sky; must examine the dust in the street; must walk through the world and his mirror.”

–William Baziotes

When grapes turn 

to wine, they long for our ability to change.

When stars wheel

around the North Pole,

they are longing for our growing consciousness.

Wine got drunk with us,

not the other way.

The body developed out of us, not we from it.

We are bees,

and our body is a honeycomb.

We made

the body, cell by cell we made it.

Journal cover image about duration of dual antiplatelet therapy following angioplasty. Antiplatelet medicines work to keep platelets from sticking together and forming blood clots. There have been many recent studies debating whether shorter or longer courses of dual antiplatelet therapy are better for patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention. 

The post Dual Antiplatelet Therapy appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

One of my favorite shows on TV is How It’s Made. I love the behind the scenes play-by-play they give for everything from apple pies to zeppelins (okay, maybe they have never actually done zeppelins but I did see one on apple pies). I just enjoy seeing the process. So when I received a job last […]

Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG)/laparoscopic hiatal hernia repair (LHHR) using biologic mesh. The post Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

I'm honored to announce that this illustration we created for Scientific American has been selected to be the cover art for this year's Medical Illustration Source Book.

This illustration was created for a May 2015 AFP article reviewing the diagnosis and management of GAD and PD in the primary care setting. While GAD and PD can develop among children and adolescents, diagnosis and care for these younger populations requires special considerations beyond the scope of this review. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and […]

This illustration was created for the January 15, 2015 feature article for American Family Physisician about Wound Care. This article reviews common questions associated with wound healing and outpatient management of minor wounds: BROOKE WORSTER, MD; MICHELE Q. ZAWORA, MD; and CHRISTINE HSIEH, MD, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Am Fam Physician. 2015 Jan 15;91(2):86-92.   Patient information: […]

Drug-coated balloons for the treatment of peripheral artery disease have the potential to reduce the incidence of restenosis without having to leave anything behind. The post Drug-Coated Balloons for PAD appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

Left atrial appendage thrombi (fibrinous clots that form in blood vessels or heart chambers) are often caused by acute atrial fibrillation. The post Left Atrial Appendage Thrombus appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

Bladder stones in dogs (urinary calculi) cause the condition urolithiasis. Stones may form anywhere in the entire urinary tract, including the bladder, ureters and kidneys. The post Canine Bladder Stones appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

We provided medical illustration for a leading company in innovation and best practice in the fields of surgery, radiotherapy and digital integrated O.R.s Can innovation and traditional medical illustration work together for a better communication? Surely yes. We have been asked to participate in an informative design project. Brainlab is a software company with applications ranging from patient positioning in radio surgery treatments. They also provide software-guided surgical navigation that facilitates the secure exchange of medical images. The assigned

I'm honored to announce that six of our pieces are in the just published book, Understanding The World: The Atlas Of Infographics. Sandra Rendgen did a wonderful job writing and editing the book. The artists on my team, Joe Lertola and Jeong Suh, did b...

A bidirectional growth plate on the concave side of the fracture promotes bone growth in opposing directions, generating a force that brings the bone fragments into alignment. 

The post Bone Fracture Healing appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

Bryan Galatis recently shot a video of me discussing the thinking and process behind my work.

The future of treating coronary artery disease (CAD) may lie in bioresorbable scaffolds. This image was created for a journal article about cardiovascular stents that dissolve in the artery over time. 

The post Dissolving Stent appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

Ticks can transmit disease-causing pathogens through the process of feeding on a host animal. The post Tick Feeding Cycle appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

 “Instead of drawing and then applying color, I draw directly with the color.”

We're proud to have two of our pieces in the new edition of the The Best American Infographics. The soccer graphic was a collaboration with John Grimwade done for 8x8 and the baseball pitch graphic was done for ESPN the Magazine.

WIRED commissioned us to do a few illustrations for their recent 2014 design issue. We created the art of the inner workings that were married to Adam Voorhes beautiful photographs. (The downtown manhattan illustration is an escpetion; it employs no ph...

Each painting is 24" x 20", silk and encaustic on panel.

3D ProFuse Bioscaffold is a demineralized bone scaffold shaped to take advantage of natural cancellous bone properties. The post Rehydrating Bone Bioscaffold appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

British American Household Staffing along with The Rug Company hosted a showing of my work in the BAHS offices on Mercer Street. They did a wonderful job organizing it. Here are some photos of the space. I'm happy with how the paintings live in this el...

Here are a few pieces on paper I've made over the last month:

Esophagogastric fundoplication procedure to relieve chronic acid reflux caused by gastroesophogeal valve defect. The post Esophagogastric Fundoplication appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

This is a medical-legal piece showing a dissection of the internal carotid artery. In this instance the word dissection does not refer to cutting something up to study.  Here it is a tearing away of the interior wall of the carotid artery due to a spontaneous or traumatic injury. While once considered uncommon, spontaneous dissection is now known […]

One of my newest works is an eye cross section from above (superior) and from behind (posterior) that I finished a couple weeks ago. I also included the planning sketch. The thickness of each layer is very important to the overall accuracy and a lot of time was spent in the sketching stage to make […]

Testicular sperm aspiration allows physicians to aspirate epididymal fluid directly from the patient for male fertility testing or storage. The post Testicular Sperm Aspiration (TESA) appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

I’m often asked whether I draw by hand or use Photoshop. The answer is simply that I draw – sometimes on the computer and sometimes on paper. Photoshop is just another tool to put marks on paper, or in this case, pixels on the screen. I use a […]

The post Did You “Photoshop” That? appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

Stents are used to treat coronary artery disease and allow blood to flow through the artery. This image was created for a cardiology journal. The post Coronary Artery Stent appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

With the World Cup upon us I thought I'd discuss a commission we did last year for the soccer magazine Howler.Robert Priest and Grace Lee came to us with a humor piece about the soccer shoe of the future. They wanted something ridiculous.I put together...

After spending a few months painting abstracts, I've decided to return to the figure. Here are two new works on paper. The shapes in these pieces will most likely inform the next series of abstracts I make.

Carpal tunnel syndrome is a condition that causes numbness, tingling and burning in the hand. Carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by inflammation around the nerves in the wrist. The post Carpal Tunnel Syndrome appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

A graphic of ours is in this month's WIRED. It's of the WTC memorial. Here's some of the reference we were given:Here's how the sketches developed:I love the graphic shape of the one below. But it's a bit disorienting and hard to read:We added som...

In the late eighties and early nineties I was a student at La Guardia High School of the Arts. My life was devoted to music. Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins and Lester Young were my idols. At eighteen I began gigging with my quintet in small venues in New York City. I wrote music and played tenor saxophone with a passion; I would end a gig or practice session in physical pain and emotional exhaustion. 

Jazz clubs were dropping like flies. Swing and bebop had been a vital aspect of American culture. Yet the glory years of the thirties, forties and fifties, with places like NYC's 52nd street, didn't exist anymore. The music I was playing was disconnected from the times I was living in; I was rehashing a music that had died decades before. I was tired of pouring my heart into something that felt useless. I stopped playing. 

At twenty I began working at my father's illustration and animation studio, Slim Films. There I learned that illustration and information graphics serve a specific purpose and have a defined goal. It was a revelation to be doing something concretely useful. After a couple of years working as a freelance illustrator I took a job as an assistant art director at Scientific American magazine. The editors worked with a passion that was eye-opening—even as they were writing about the most obscure subjects, like a particle physics theory that had no perceived relevance in our daily lives. It was as if I were surrounded by artists and musicians. 

This reignited my desire to make music. I decided to leave Scientific American and go back to Manhattan School of Music, the conservatory I had dropped out of a few years earlier. I quickly learned that I didn't have what it would take to make it as a professional musician. It seemed as if the pinnacle of success was getting into the pit band of a Broadway show. The prospect of playing the same music day in and day out was a nightmare. At the time I was earning, and enjoying, a decent living as a freelance illustrator. Once again I stopped playing. 

Over the years I became relatively successful as an illustrator. Five years ago I began to hire people and transition from a freelance illustrator to the creative director of my own studio. Two and a half years ago we moved the studio from Maplewood, N.J., to New York City. 

I reentered the world of the useless; I decided to devote a significant part of my time and energy to creating fine art. Creating something that is of no use is an exercise in frustration. The other day I was complaining to an artist friend about this. Shaking his head he said, "People have no idea how hard this is. It's awful. Just awful." 

And then, a couple of weeks ago I downloaded an album from iTunes of Barry Harris and Charles Davis, two of the teachers I studied with years ago. At the first notes my knees buckled. Time stopped and joy welled in my heart. It didn't matter what year it was. It didn't matter that what I defined as jazz had died years ago. What mattered was that for this brief time it was alive and well in my studio as I listened and danced.

Thirty second exposure of a palm tree swayingWe live in motion. And without time there would be no motion. Everything moves, trembles, vibrates. Depth perception isn't possible without motion. In working in print we are in effect stopping motion. By st...

As I was taking pictures over the weekend it occurred to me that the act of taking a photograph is reductive. The same is true for sculpting with marble.Look at these two images:Michelangelo used chisels and hammers to chip into the block of marble in ...

I've been taking pictures of the city that I use as reference for ink drawings.It's good to have ink on my fingers. It's good to smell materials other than the plastic and metal of my computer. It's good to have a tangible object in my hands after...

Eighty-one professionals were asked to create a visual definition of information graphics for a book that was published by the Society of News Designers Español.

When I was asked to do this, I froze. Talk about a blank canvas staring you in the face. An information graphic about an information graphic. How meta! My initial ideas involved illustrating the process of going from complexity to simplicity. I considered taking a photo of downtown NYC and then creating a 3-D rendering of the same area with one building highlighted in blue. Lame. One thing my father taught me is to throw out the first idea you come up with; it's usually too simple or surface oriented.

I continued to agonize over the assignment. I felt more and more that the only way to define an information graphic was through words. What are words anyway but organized collections of letters? And what are letters but symbols composed of abstract lines and geometric shapes?

Here's what I came up with:

After the judging at Malofiej20 I'm not sure I would say that an information graphic must have annotations or words though. There was an entry by National Geographic that was a reconstruction of a primitive man's face. The general consensus was that it wasn't an information graphic. I argued that it was— it was a visual that informed the reader of a possible facial structure of our ancestors. I said that there was a science to these reconstructions. Someone then said that they would feel it was an information graphic if it was annotated. At the time I agreed. I've since changed my mind. In hindsight I wish I had stuck to my guns on this one.

To prove my point, this is my favorite information graphic:























It's a color wheel developed by Johannes Itten. I use it all the time. Complementary colors are opposite one another. It shows how the primary colors mix to make the secondary and tertiary colors. It's informative and extremely useful.

I've been reading Blake's The Book of Urizen. This new series draws inspiration from it. It's titled Permanence Lost. Each painting measures 14"x11". Silk and encaustic on panel.

Arthritis is an inflammation of joints. Osteoarthritis (OA) is divided into stages. The highest stage, 4, is assigned to severe OA. OA that has become this advanced is likely causing significant pain and disruption to joint movement.

The post Severe Osteoarthritis of the Knee appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

Here are a few pieces I've been working on. The series is titled Every Angel is Terror. The name is a line from a Rumi poem I recently read. Each measures 20"x16". Encaustic and silk on panel.

I've decided to explore working with line:I'm using a paper support rather than a wood panel. I like the rough edges. These are more figurative than than the recent abstracted work I've been making. It's refreshing to go back to the figure.

The illustration demonstrates desired position and proportion of the eye, brow and eyelid relative to the ocular orbit. The post Periocular Aesthetics appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

The pelvic floor is made of several muscle layers that form a bowl shape within the pelvis. This image illustrates a side view of the uterus, bladder, rectum and pelvic floor muscles. The post Female Pelvic Floor appeared first on Clark Medical Illust...

This is a still from a recent animation project on the feline olfactory system and appetite. The post Feline Olfactory System appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

Carotid stenosis is a condition in which the carotid arteries become narrowed or blocked. This image was used for a medical journal cover.

The post Carotid Stenosis appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

The hiatus is an opening in the diaphragm (the muscular wall separating the chest cavity from the abdomen). Typically, the esophagus goes through the hiatus and attaches to the stomach. In a hiatal hernia the stomach bulges up into the chest through that opening. This illustration depicts a hernia […]

The post Hiatal Hernia Graft appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

Osteoarthritis occurs when inflammation and injury to a joint cause cartilage tissue to break down. The breakdown of cartilage causes pain, inflammation, and deformity. The post Osteoarthritis of the Hip appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

I'm hosting a three-person show at my studio. I'm showing with two other wonderful artists: Linda Serrone Rolon and Alkan Nallbani. The opening is on Thursday, May 8th, from 6 to 10pm. If you're in the NYC area, please come by!

The show will be up through Saturday, May 10th. 11am-6pm.

Press release:

TRANSMUTATION

Please Join Us Thursday, May 8, 6-10pm

Christie Studio, 67 Greene Street, 3rd floor

New York City

Please accept this invitation to view the works by Linda Serrone Rolon, Bryan Christie, and Alkan Nallbani and their connection to Transmutation.  

Linda Serrone Rolon's elements of Transmutation are a conversion of life, material, and imagination.  Rolon has been painting Mother and Child as subject long before she even thought about being a mom.  Each interpretation is a reflection of her own personal experience and a deep connection to others’ stories of being a mother and/or a child.  “It is the surface that I need to keep clean and smooth. That feeling to make a terrible situation perfect, like in cinema—its nostalgic effort to turn an image into a life lesson.” From the boroughs of NYC, Rolon continues to work in Brooklyn with family in tow and has retired parts of her life to reconnect with the community in the only way she knows how (through her art).

Bryan Christie’s work explores the spectrum of human experience. "Our lives start with trauma as we are brought into the world from the safety of our mother's womb. We eventually die, experiencing the loss of all that is dear to us. Yet transcendence and the experience of the sublime are rooted in this fleeting material existence. The divine is made evident through tangible and sensual experience; without our physical selves, we would not experience moments of wonder and the mysterious." 

His work is an attempt to transform the lasting effects of his post-traumatic stress disorder from childhood abuse into a message of acceptance, love, and compassion. He ultimately believes that "the human body can express spiritual truths, and my work seeks to inspire a visceral experience of the ultimate love, truth, and beauty that lies in the heart of our world."

Christie’s paintings are created from multiple layers of silk bound together with encaustic, mounted on wooden panels. Many of the figures’ poses are derived from ancient classical sculpture and Renaissance paintings. Christie is inspired by these historical works because of the interplay between our flesh-and-blood existence and something less tangible—our soul.

Alkan Nallbani’s work presents simple images intended to suggest universal themes – humanity, sexuality, environment – raising questions about our existence along the continuum of time.  “My journey from repression to freedom is essential to, and provides the context for, my work but does not constrain it.  Although I cannot remain indifferent to the indelible mark imprinted upon me by such experiences, it is not specifically my identity as an Albanian or immigrant that interests me, but rather the transformative nature of the immigrant experience, inextricably linked with its timeless themes of dislocation, and the continuous challenge of humanity.” 

Chlamydosaurus have a frill of folded skin that normally lies around the back of the head that is erected when the lizard is threatened. These bipedal lizards can run very quickly and sometimes appear to be walking on water.

The post Frill Neck Lizard appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

A few months ago I made this piece:Something was happening. The entire picture plane was beginning to be used. So I began making more pieces in this vein. I was excited with what I was seeing. Yet all the pieces looked too similar. I was also hitting a...

Apophyseal avulsion fractures of the hip and pelvis are injuries that usually occur in the adolescent athlete. This illustration was used for a medical journal cover.

The post Apophyseal Avulsion Fractures of the Hip and Pelvis appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

This illustration was used as the journal cover art for an article on healthy athletes with a history of shoulder instability.

The post Shoulder Instability in Young Athletes appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

A femoral tunnel was created to aid with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. This image was created for an orthopedic journal cover. The post Femoral Tunnel Drilling for ACL Reconstruction appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

We had the pleasure to work with FOR and bring to life an exceptional resource for those desiring in-depth knowledge of temporomandibular joint anatomy. An incredible collection of images further enhances the experience of understanding the more intricate anatomic characteristics of the TMJ. The Temporomandibular Joint  joins the existing digital textbook Single Implants and Their Restoration.

Crown: Tooth Prepared for Crown The post Crown: Tooth Prepared for Crown appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

Crown: White Crown Near Final Position The post Crown: White Crown Near Final Position appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

Crown: White Crown in Final Position The post Crown: White Crown in Final Position appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

Crown: Gold Crown in Final Position The post Crown: Gold Crown in Final Position appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

Dentures: Full Dentures in Place The post Dentures: Full Dentures in Place appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

Dentures: Missing Teeth The post Dentures: Missing Teeth appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

Dentures: Partial Dentures The post Dentures: Partial Dentures appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

Teeth on either side of missing tooth have drifted toward the space, lower tooth has drifted upward into space. The post Drifting appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

Progressive tooth decay. The post Dental Fillings 1: Progressive Tooth Decay appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

Tooth prepared for filling. The post Dental Fillings 1: Tooth Prepared for Filling appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

Dental Fillings 2: Tooth Filled with Silver Filling Material The post Dental Fillings 2: Tooth Filled with Silver Filling Material appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.