In its current display, the Bristol Art Museum is focusing on art created by an entirely different profession: the medical profession. Museum curator Mary Dondero said, “Well, the original idea was to expand the idea of what creativity is, which meant reaching out beyond the circle of people who identify as artists.”

Dondero said the museum became interested in the medical profession as a result of their work during the COVID-19 pandemic. She became interested in how medical practitioners think, comparing it to the thought process of the artist.

“Both groups of people think with attention to detail, and they are also two groups of people that are on a quest to seek more knowledge about life,” Donerdo said. She explained that both professions, in their own way, can deal with the fragility of life. Dondero reached out to multiple places and multiple people in the medical field. This included doctors, nurses, technicians, and students. She saw it as an opportunity for all of them to show another side of themselves.

One of these artists is Dr. Murray Norcross, a general practitioner and a former Navy captain who served 30 years in the medical corps as a family physician. Norcross, who is well known for his bowties, painted a bowtie on one of his paintings while it was put on display in what is known as a vernissage. “I like telling stories with my paintings,” Norcross said. “I always drew as a kid, and in my medical records, I always drew pictures for my patients to show them what was wrong.”

Some of his “stories” are based on people he knew in the military. One painting, of an older military medical practitioner, is based on a man Norcross knew who has severe PTSD. In the background, the images of the war are very noticeable as the officer looks straight out toward the viewer.

Others took a more humorous approach to telling stories. One shows a doctor telling the personification of death that they need to wash their hands before touching the patient.

The parallels of surgery and art

Another artist, Maya Srinivasan, is a general surgeon at Bringham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. She is also getting her master’s in the Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design.  “I think there’s a creativity in carving a woodblock, a little bit of a spontaneity, but also a sort of plan that is similar to how you approach surgery sometimes,” Srinivasan said. She said that both can use very precise, repetitive events. She focuses on things such as printmaking and wood carving. Like surgery, she said, the more you do it, the better you get at it.

Her art is also inspired by her time in the medical field. One focuses on a patient and his prolonged anxiety before surgery. Another is called, “Consuming Hunger,” and is based on a patient she had as an intern, who had cancer and could not eat food. Every day, the patient would tell her what he wished he could be eating. Srinivasan also used it to express things about herself, with one of her pieces being focused on her experiences as a woman in surgery.

“I think it can often be a pretty toxic environment for females. It’s getting better, thankfully, but there are still many older and younger surgeons who believe that women shouldn’t be surgeons.” She said the exhibit, as well as the arts, gave her a platform to express how she feels as a woman and as a doctor.

An artist and a doctor

Phillip Grupposo said that while their art might not have been expired by their time in the arts, their process certainly was. “For me, the main connection that I see is attention to detail, the ability to be patient and take things one step at a time, taking care and being correct, doing the right thing,” Grupposo said.

He had always been involved in the arts, having majored in music composition in college before going to medical school. The art shown in the exhibit are woodworking pieces, as Grupposo has been working with wood since he first made cabinets with his father-in-law 50 years ago.

He describes woodworking, as well as the arts, as somewhat of a distraction for medical professionals. Grupposo, who was a practitioner at Rhode Island Hospital and a Medical Associate Dean at Brown University, said there is relief in knowing that, in the arts, the only person impacted by his mistakes is himself, and not anyone else.

The Bristol Art Museum exhibit opened with a ceremony on Sept. 22. According to Dondero, it was sold out. “It was packed, and the artists were delighted because I think it is a group of people who are very creative and don’t have the opportunity to exhibit it in a collective way.”

The exhibit will continue through Sunday, Oct. 24. It is on display Thursday to Sunday, from 1 to 4 p.m.