Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:39 — 7.0MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Email | RSS | More
Phee Marcial’s artwork opens our co-produced endometriosis series: Armor, Light, and Power. A conversation about art, pain, and process.
Click here to view the verbatim transcript
Click here to read the newsletter
Summary
Phee created art; Health Hats was floored. They are well into co-producing a series about endometriosis. Health Hats knows little about endometriosis or manga/anime-adjacent art. Phee knows little about podcasting and video production. Both share vibrant curiosity. What a setup for the series. Hang on tight.
[Episode
Proem
Health Hats: I’m bursting with excitement. I’m partnering with my new friend, Phee Marcial, to produce a series about Phee’s experience with severe endometriosis. Phee is an artist, storyteller, and expert in the classics. Phee and I have met and recorded seven hours together. We have two interviews scheduled. Phee created an image for our series. This intro is about that image. Readers and viewers can see the image. Listeners can hear it described on the podcast audio. We encourage listeners to watch, and we hope you enjoy this intro as much as we did.
Body You Can See Through
Health Hats: This is a three-dimensional picture. This person is wearing some kind of wispy clothing you can see through. It has movement. This is an image of a person lunging forward. I was going to say with their chest, but it really isn’t. It’s with their hips. Leading with their hips, with their hair flowing in the background.
Phee, what do you see?
Armor, Light, and Gore
Phee Marcial: Their kind of armor is indistinguishable from their body. The color suggests this armor is some kind of metal. Their right arm and both of their legs below the quads are made of this metal. So is most of their chest and some of their neck. And there’s very heavy contrast light coming from the east, falling along the front of the figure’s body and casting a shadow towards us behind them. And there is some kind of gore dripping from the figure’s right arm onto the ground and staining some of their body.
Art in this Body
Phee Marcial: I made this piece some time after surgery. Whether it was specifically about the surgery is, I think, irrelevant, because that’s how art feels when you’re living in a body. But I have been developing this character for a long time and wanted to play with light and color a little more.
It began, as with most of the works I’m proudest of, with sketching whatever was in my head on paper or on my tablet. Usually, it was completely in black and white. Almost always, it was about how the figure interacts with light and shadow. And the color came later. I didn’t really know at first whether the color would distract from the kind of movement and, yeah, the visceral nature of that movement. The sense of sharpness. It’s always nice when color kind of manifests itself without being asked for. I think that’s one of the most wonderful ways to engage with color, at least for me.
Discipline <-> Freedom
Phee Marcial: It was very exploratory. I typically work in a super regimented way. I like to be organized. Which, yeah, you may not get from the visual result, but I am typically quite rigid with my process, so it’s nice to see something turn out more freely. That’s something I’ve been noticing more in my work, and I’ve had to adapt to what is available to my physical body and my health at any given moment. And so, it has the opposite effect of what I would expect, which is that it makes me freer rather than more rigid. I think because I want to be able to, it feels more precious, right? The time that I get to spend in that space. So, it’s fewer and further between but more precious.
Power!
Health Hats: What I like about it, first, is the power. This is a powerful image of a powerful person with an outside and an inside, and you can really feel that the outside and inside are connected; you allow us to see movement, pain, and strength. I’m floored by it.
I’m really looking forward to this conversation, to subsequent episodes, and to seeing how it colors our understanding of you and endometriosis. Thank you.
Phee Marcial: Thank you.
Reflection
Health Hats: Are you ready for the first episode? Watch for it in two weeks. What do you see in Phee’s powerful artwork? Do you want to see more?
References
Phee Marcial’s website: https://hvmator.com/home
Inspired by and Grateful to:
Laura Marcial, O and Michelle Horvath, Barby Ingle
Related Episodes
Please comment and ask questions:
- at the comment section at the bottom of the show notes
- on LinkedIn
- via email
- YouTube channel
- DM on Instagram, TikTok to @healthhats
- Substack
- Patreon
Production Team
- Kayla Nelson: Web and Social Media Coach, Dissemination, Help Desk
- Steve Heatherington: Help Desk and podcast production counseling
- Joey van Leeuwen, Drummer, Composer, and Arranger, provided the music for the intro, outro, proem, and reflection
- Claude, Perplexity, Auphonic, Descript, Grammarly, DaVinci Resolve, DaVinci AI Art Generator, OpenArt AI Creator Studio
Artificial Intelligence in Podcast Production
Health Hats, the Podcast, utilizes AI tools for production tasks such as editing, transcription, and content suggestions. While AI assists with various aspects, including image creation, most AI suggestions are modified. All creative decisions remain my own, with AI sources referenced as usual. Questions are welcome.
Creative Commons Licensing
This license enables reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. If you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms. CC BY-NC-SA includes the following elements:
BY: credit must be given to the creator. NC: Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted.
SA: Adaptations must be shared under the same terms.
Please let me know. dannyhealthhats@gmail.com Material on this site created by others is theirs, and use follows their guidelines.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions presented in this podcast and publication are solely my responsibility and do not necessarily represent the views of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute® (PCORI®), its Board of Governors, or Methodology Committee. Danny van Leeuwen (Health Hats)
