drawingthebodyelectric
http://www.paweekly.com/PAW/morgue/news/1995_Jul_2 "Some people ask why I didn't go to medical school. But if I had, I'd have to be a pediatrician my whole life, or an endocrinologist. This way, I get to be an endocrinologist one week, a pediatrician the next and a gynecologist the next." When C.P. Snow lamented the growing chasm between art and science, he didn't envision Betsy Palay. The Redwood City graphic designer is both: a fine artist (with a magna cum laude degree from the University of Michigan to prove it) turned medical illustrator (with a master's in the subject from the same school to prove it).
Palay draws the gamut of human life as it is lived on the inside: T cells communicating with B cells, macrophages eating, microbes invading. "I try to find the appropriate emotion," she said. "Does it feel warm or cold, inviting or off-putting, complex or simple? Does it make you feel confident or scared?"

"I want people to feel great when they look at my work," she continued. "If it's pleasurable, they'll look at it longer. Then perhaps I will be able to teach them something. We'll be able to get the message across."

But, as they say in galleries worldwide, Is it art? "There are big conversations about this in the world of art. I don't know. I'm the first one to say perhaps people aren't going to be moved to tears by looking at this stuff. On the other hand, I sometimes am. I'm moved to tears by studying biology."

Palay runs her own graphic design business in Palo Alto, a shoebox-sized operation called Artemis tucked into an Emerson Street alleyway.

The company, five people in all, specializes in creating graphics that convey complicated scientific ideas to layfolk. In its 2 1/2-year history, the company has won 14 national awards, including three gold awards from the Medical Marketing Association. The firm's client roster includes Syntex Laboratories, Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, Intel and Mitsubishi.

Before striking out her own 15 years ago, Palay worked for NASA Ames Research Center. She considers NASA the place that trained her to be a "do anything, now" graphic designer. "People would come to me and say, 'I need an exhibit, I need a brochure, I need a logo.' I'd think to myself, 'Uh, I'd better learn how to do this.' So you could say I'm self-taught in graphic design."

Her drawing history goes back to her childhood. Through drawing, she could make whole gardens, or towns, or places not of this Earth. "When you're drawing, you can create anything you want. You can draw a picture of another world and while you're drawing it, you're in that world. It's sort of like dreaming while you're awake. If you experience that as a child, it's kind of addictive, the way dreaming feels nice."

Palay lives in Redwood City with her 9-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, who also draws "everything. Of course, my favorite are pictures of mothers and daughters kissing and hugging, but right now she's into drawing these scenes. And horses. Anything veterinary."

Palay may be the only artist, graphic or otherwise to have drawn a sexy kidney. "I drew a kidney once and the art director said, 'Gosh, I don't know what to say about this, but this seems very erotic to me.' I thought, 'Well, that's cool.' If our bodies aren't erotic, what is? Nature, biology--this is us we're talking about. Shouldn't we find ourselves beautiful?"


--Milan Kovacevic
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