三芝藝術 期末報告 英文稿
護理系一年級 呂尚瑩
Irene Lu’s artwork entitled ‘Nightingale’s lantern’ was completed in November 2010. The creation of this painting originated from a personal motivation to study nursing. Depicting a lantern as a theme, she obtained materials from the common portrait of Florence Nightingale in Nightingale’s biography which usually mentions the ‘light’ image. Then she combined the initials of the Mackay Medical college (M.M.C.) as a metaphor for her own expectations. She used pencil, pen and charcoal pencil as her materials. First she used pencil to apply the base, then she used pens to depict the outline clearly and put in some shadow. The last step was to modify and strengthen the detail.
Why did the author choose this way to present her artwork? This is because of her experiences and interests in childhood. Irene loved painting and her parents encouraged her in her art ever since she was small. However it was not until fifth grade that she started the formal training of learning charcoal sketching. Not only can charcoal pencil depict the outline but it can also be applied by hand to present different levels of texture. This highly useful material let Irene maintain a strong interest in sketching.
Maybe some viewers will wonder why Irene recommends this artwork? For that there is a story.
While filling out a form for college application after the university entrance exams, she chose a profession she had never thought of – nursing. She said: “In the past, I had little to do with nursing. Furthermore, I rarely go to hospital. But taking account of the test scores, I decided to study nursing”. But because nursing is difficult and hard, not to mentions that nurses have to work day and night, many students’ parents and relatives oppose the idea of their children studying nursing. However Irene’s parents supported her. They thought that a stable environment and an interest in one’s job is of prime importance.
She said: “Before entering the nursing department, the only concept I had of nursing was that it is a noble profession wearing a white costume and standing in the front line to face the spreading of disease. But when she entered the nursing department at mackay, she found she had a lot of things to learn.
At the start of the semester, the teacher asked everyone to read a biography of Florence nightingale. In the book, it described her great contribution. Not only did she improve the medical environment, she also created a well-organized nursing system that could train nurses to help in the hospital. From that time, Irene started to change her image of nursing. Furthermore, the book also mentioned that she was a patient nurse with lots of love. Besides helping patients all day, she carried a lantern to go around and inspect all the patients too. Some patients said: “the warmest lantern at night is Florence Nightingale’s”, This not only describes the lantern Florence carried with her but also describes her inner warmth.
The picture is based on this concept. One reason is to use what Irene has learned, and the other reason is to describe the new meaning of nursing for her. This lantern in the picture symbolizes Florence Nightingale, the pioneer of nursing, guiding the younger generation to help other people. It is also a metaphor for nurses who spread love and human kindness to the patients. At the bottom of the lantern, the author uses light-reflections and shadow to present the crucifix which is the symbol for nursing and the abbreviation of the Mackay Medical College (M.M.C.) This painting combines images with words.
So the whole painting Irene is trying to express is that she was in the M.M.C. and will follow in Florence Nightingale’s footsteps while continuing to learn about nursing. This artwork has not only autobiographical implications, the light from the lantern Florence Nightingale is holding also symbolizes the author’s future career target.