Portfolio > Still Lifes

Still life with two skulls, arm bones, and a brain in a jar
The Great Debate
Pastel
9x12
2018

The Indiana Medical History Museum had an art event, my second one with them. This one was in conjunction with a Frankenstein bicentennial program. They set up still lifes in three of the rooms of the building, all made up of items from their collection. There were lots of skulls, bones, and things floating in jars - including 2 heads.

I looked at the heads in jars, but the room was cramped and dark. This room was much brighter thanks to skylight, and featured skulls of a human and a gorilla, all three bones of an arm, a sacrum, a sternum and a brain in a jar. The walls of the room were all glass-fronted cabinets containing all manner of instruments. They helped establish the background.

To me the two skulls look poised for some sort of debate, which is where I got the title. The sacrum and sternum, running diagonally across the center, are pretty indistinct, but they aren't bones you would normally recognize anyway.