The Surgeons' Art Seattle
Artistry is central to the specialty of facial plastic surgery. The surgeon must first visualize the desired outcome and then create it. Most surgical training is directed towards the craft of facial plastic surgery, but its art is equally important. We believe the study and practice of the arts train the mind to concentrate and really “see” more deeply. A selection of our photography and poetry demonstrates paths taken and new directions.
POEMS
Dr. Larrabee trained at Charity Hospital, New Orleans. This poem was written and published in JAMA after it was closed because of Hurricane Katrina.
Two poems published in the Lancet were written during Face to Face missions to aid victims of the war in former Yugoslavia.
The poem “American Voices” was written for some of the women Dr. Larrabee treated in the Face to Face Domestic Violence program and published in the Lancet. Denise Levertov was Dr. Larrabee’s friend and mentor.
Dr Larrabee’s son Gregory had reflux esophagitis, sometimes called colic, which he outgrew but not before inspiring this Lancet poem.
Dr Larrabee came of age in Nebraska, Wyoming, and Utah. The Lancet poem “On the Road” remembers that mental geography.
Most of the poems in Dr. Larrabee’s Chapbook Racing the Train have been published in well known and some not so well known literary journals. The cover design is by his son Shane then in high school.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Dr. Larrabee’s book Roslyn is both a history and a photographic celebration of a small town in Washington- best know as the site of the television show Northern Exposure. Photographer Robert Adams wrote the book was “just right”.
The Gobi Desert China and Lanahou Hospital were cover photographs on the Archives of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and the Archives of Pediatrics. Both were take on Smile China cleft lip palate missions.
This Chicago River photograph was taken on a break during a meeting of the American Board of Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery.
This cover photograph from the Archives of Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery is a sunset over the Adriatic Sea taken during a Face to Face mission to Croatia.
Many of Dr Larrabee’s published photos are from his travels in Latin America as a public health physician.
For years Dr Larrabee traveled to Alaska to consult with patients and to experience this land.
Children (especially your own) are often the best models.
Dr. James Ridgway’s Art
Prior to his current medical profession, Dr. Ridgway was an art scholar and obtained his bachelor’s degree in painting. He is also an accomplished photographer, with recent images published in the 2012 Spindrift: Art and Literary Journal. The complementary nature of his undergraduate studies naturally led to a career in medicine and his specialization in facial plastic surgery. His medical illustrations can be seen in the new release of The Art and Craft of Facial Rejuvenation as well as the upcoming release of Surgical Anatomy of the Face.