The Washington University School of Medicine showcases art exhibits on a rotating quarterly schedule. On display in the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center 2nd floor Hearth, artwork in these rotating shows are medical or scientific by nature, St. Louis themed or produced by a member of the Washington University community.
2-D Exhibit
Peter Doré
I was born and raised in the mountains of Virginia. In a small town closer to the highway (our town had 3 exits!) than the surrounding coal mining communities. I used to consider that I escaped, but as I get older, I miss the mountains and the simple life. About a year before COVID, my son (a dental student) was encouraged to take up painting to increase his fine motor skills. He introduced me to Acrylic Flow paints. I watched about 130 hours of YouTube videos, practiced, and became addicted. I work in the Division of Biostatistics, which requires a lot of precision and organized orderly work. I took the hint from our My Way to Health program and started using my painting to reduce my stress and anxiety.
In contrast to the precision of my work, the free and random nature of Acrylic Flow painting really appealed to me and was very relaxing. These paintings are obviously abstract and all about color and the feeling they give you. Some of these paintings are from near the beginning and are not as good as others are, but I hope they bring you joy or invoke some feeling when you look at them.
Sometimes I create a painting a night, and the materials for my new hobby were starting to get expensive. Therefore, I had to start selling some pieces to cover new materials. A friend in the division (thanks Kim) suggested I enter the staff art show and from that sprang the invitation to show my work here. That was two years ago, I have sold several dozen in about 20 different states, many of them commissioned pieces (they just tell me size and colors, and the paint finds its pattern from there).
Now painting is a part of my life and if you have ever wanted to start a new hobby, I say give it a try, watch some videos, and just go, go, go!
Peter Doré received a Master’s Degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and a Bachelor’s in Psychology from Virginia Tech.
Peter is a Database Administrator in the Division of Biostatistics and works on multi-year, multi-site research projects in many different departments around the medical school.
Examples of work featured in this exhibit
3-D Exhibit
Philip Skroska
Now on display in the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center 2nd floor 3D cases are historic hearing devices and artifacts. Featuring some of the smallest antique hearing horns to an early bone-conduction hearing aid, this mini-exhibit is a selection of the CID-Max A. Goldstein Historic Devices for Hearing Collection at the Bernard Becker Medical Library, one of the largest hearing device collections in the country.
Then see almost 60 more hearing devices in the Becker Library 7th floor Glaser Gallery’s new exhibit “How Did We Get Hear? Historic Hearing Devices, 1800-2000.”
This exhibit highlights the long history of hearing devices, from conversation tubes to transistors. The devices demonstrate both the advancements in science and technology that make today’s hearing aids so small and effective, as well as some of the problematic attitudes towards deafness that, in part, influenced their miniaturization and development.