Escape Artist
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The Left Atrium The attending psychiatrist immedi- Years passed by. I had left the world CPR, struggling to remember the adult ately organized a debriefing session for of acute care, and now spent my time in ratio of beats to breaths, screaming in- the staff. “How do you feel?” she asked management. The stethoscope seldom structions to call for the mobile ICU me. Angry, Ma'am. Angry at the ineffi- hung around my neck, and my clinical unit, to call another doctor. I thumped, cient system that didn’t get the cart to skills were little tested. A neighbour blew, shouted, begged. Surely she would me in time, angry at the reckless ado- called me as I lay in bed on the edge of suddenly gasp and start breathing like the lescent who defied orders, angry at her sleep. He was agitated: his wife was boy at the pool. More physicians arrived, friends who let her dance. Above all, sick, throwing up. I found her vomiting and the ICU team. The minutes dragged angry with myself for failing. on the floor of their room. They had by. Intubation, IV, drugs, electrical enjoyed a heavy meal, with perhaps a shocks. Deep down, I knew it was over. Then, some years later, there was the bit too much wine. I knew she suffered Whom do I blame? My clinical Saturday morning at the neighbour- from gastritis from time to time. I skills? Her lifestyle? Her physician? hood swimming pool, where — my waited until she felt better and told her The ambulance that could, and should, family still asleep — I was enjoying husband to call me again if necessary. have arrived five minutes earlier? Or some quiet time alone. A sudden com- The next morning I checked her did the finger that directed baby Smith motion diverted me from my newspa- again. She looked pale, was still nau- to live simply turn this time in the other per. My name was being shouted; I seous, and was not drinking. I suggested direction? What is the recipe for bring- looked up to see a neighbour emerging getting her to the ER, in case she ing someone back from the banks of from the pool, a small boy in his arms. needed IV fluids. She smiled, dismissing the River Styx: knowledge and skill, The child was a purple-black colour and my concern. I returned home and was timing, location and luck? Which will looked truly lifeless. I pounced on him, immediately called back. “She's col- determine life or death? Does it matter started to breathe into his mouth and lapsed.” Having just seen her, I wasn’t whether I am alone or not? Would it pounded his chest, again conscious that too worried. Probably she’d had a faint- make any difference if I were sur- I was, professionally, alone; that the task ing spell when she got up. But I still rounded by the whole team? In these was awesome; that I did not want to be walked back to her house, perhaps a lit- cases, I am not sure. Perhaps the there. Then suddenly a cough, a joyful tle slower than I had the night before. slightly consoling thing is to try to re- spurt of vomitus, the welcome sounds of I entered her room and immediately member one’s place. retching and crying. He was saved, I the experienced that old emotional volcano, saviour. I handed him over to the ambu- the eruption of horror out of comfort- Basil Porter lance and returned to my life, glowing able, clinical concern. She lay lifeless on Medical Director, Southern Region in the newly won status of glorious the bed. I was alone again. I, the pediatri- Maccabi Health Services physician and saver of life. cian, dragged her to the floor and started Beersheva, Israel Lifeworks Escape artist he Jack Pine (1916–1917) is Tom Thomson’s fame as an artist rests T Thomson’s iconic painting of the on five short years of production, be- Canadian wilderness. It is also an icon of ginning in 1912, after his first trip into the status that Thomson himself Algonquin Park. It is apparent in the achieved after his unexplained death on over 140 works in the show that his Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park, Ont., at abilities as a painter increased exponen- the age of 39. This status originated tially during this period — which, had among his peer artists, who later formed he lived longer, would have been con- the Group of Seven,1 and his patron, sidered his formative years. Largely Toronto ophthalmologist Dr. James self-taught, Thomson developed his MacCallum (1860–1944).2 In the exhibi- painting skills through connections tion Tom Thomson the National Gallery with several future Group of Seven of Canada presents a comprehensive and artists who, like Thomson, were em- Tom Thomson, Sunset (summer 1915). intriguing look at both the artist and the ployees at Toronto’s Grip Limited, a Oil on composite wood-pulp board. icon and reveals the extent to which the graphic arts firm. Thomson was already 21.6 cm x 26.7 cm two coexist. interested in painting landscapes out- National Gallery of Canada, Bequest Dr. J. M. MacCallum, Toronto CMAJ • JULY 23, 2002; 167 (2) 175 De l’oreille gauche doors, and his technique underwent tistically talented, but not startlingly rapid growth through his inclined to paint in earnest close contact with J.E.H. MacDonald, until the last five years of Arthur Lismer, Franklin Carmichael, his life. These details have Frederick Varley, Lawren Harris and been filtered and reformu- A.Y. Jackson. At his death he left an im- lated to create an idea of pressive body of work — roughly 45 Thomson that endures in canvasses, 600 oil sketches and a small the popular imagination. collection of watercolours, drawings The tales of his wilderness and graphic designs. His many surviv- exploits in Algonquin Park, ing sketches — small, on-site paintings the ambiguities surround- on paperboard or wood panels, such as ing his violent death and Sunset (1915) — reveal his almost ob- even his purported haunt- sessive interest in the northern Ontario ing of Canoe Lake have landscape.3 The sketches, executed with transcended the facts. In- energetic brushwork and vivid colours, stead of ignoring the pulsate with a sense of directness and Thomson mythology and National Gallery of Canada immediacy. They also reveal that attempting to present a Tom Thomson, The Jack Pine (winter 1916-1917). Thomson’s painting was an intuitive scholarly study of his life Oil on canvas, 127.9 cm x 139.8 cm and emotional response to an environ- and work, the National ment, an atmosphere, a quality of light. Gallery’s show acknowl- This approach imbues his work with a edges and clearly situates the mytho- dial essence of this need. Tom Thomson spiritual dimension.4 logical Thomson alongside the docu- scrutinizes these interwoven implica- In the years since his death, Thom- mented one, delivering a thoroughly tions of the artist’s life and work and es- son, like Niagara Falls, the Rocky satisfying portrait of both. tablishes a high standard for others to Mountains, the RCMP and Anne of Beyond the immediate beauty of the follow. Green Gables, has become part of the paintings and the larger-than-life Canadian identity. The basic facts of mythology, Little Cauchon Lake, a small Tom Thomson runs at the National his life are verifiable: born the sixth oil sketch painted during a visit to Al- Gallery of Canada until September 8, child of a Claremont, Ont., farmer in gonquin in spring 1916, encapsulates 2002 and will be circulating until the end 1877, an avid camper and fisherman, Thomson’s universal appeal. In the of 2003 to the Vancouver Art Gallery, le an ambivalent graphic artist who foreground,Thomson depicts a small Musée du Québec, the Art Gallery of drifted to Seattle, then to Toronto, ar- figure fishing, dwarfed in the rush of a Ontario, and the Winnipeg Art Gallery. waterfall behind him. But the sweep of the fisherman’s arm follows the direc- Vivian Tors tion of the water’s flow — the figure Ottawa, Ont. is subordinate to nature, but is also in harmony with it. This, Thomson’s ex- Notes 1. In the words of J.E.H. MacDonald (1873–1932), perience of nature, is what everyone de- one of its founding members, the Group of Seven, sires to experience. established in 1920, believed that Canadian art should express “the mood and character and spirit For Thomson ultimately symbolizes of the country.” The other original members were escapism: he personifies our need and Franklin Carmichael (1890–1945), Lawren Harris (1885–1970), A.Y. Jackson (1882–1974), Frank desire to put aside the ordinary routines Johnston (1882–1949), Arthur Lismer (1885– of our daily lives and challenge our- 1969) and Frederick Varley (1881–1969). 2. Mason RB. Dr. James MacCallum: patron and selves with the same activities that were friend of Canada’s Group of Seven. CMAJ 1996; so important to him. At one point or 155(9):1333-5. 3. An interesting component of the National another we all dream of the opportu- Gallery show is a display that shows that, by nity to test our ability to not only con- 1912, Algonquin Park was a popular tourist des- front and survive the elements, but also tination and supported a thriving logging indus- try, and was not a pristine wilderness at all. to connect with our own origins at their 4. According to Andrew Hunter, one the curators most elemental level.