Cecilia Wallace

Scales of Analysis | Linocut (block print) 2024

The magic of the pre-clinical years of medical school has been how, in a single day, our focus oscillates from the biochemistry of purine synthesis to the stringy forearm in anatomy lab, to cardiac physiology, health coaching, and back — then off to a free clinic shift.  

  Home in upper Michigan this winter, reunited with my favorite birch trees and head brimming with the fearsome specifics of many bacteria I hadn’t realized existed, I sat down to make a small print that framed a beautiful, flagellated gram-negative rod with different scales of biological organization.  

Instead, my bacillus turned into Earth with the crust-mantle-core cutout from 8th grade science class, and my frame images represent different scales of organization rather subtly — trees in a forest at night; a crocus bulb in mineral- and fungi-filled soil; and a stylized flower, from the human art world. I really didn’t want to think about school over break, it turned out. Still, making this print felt like a day in medical school, shifting topics and scale.   

Cecilia is a student at the College of Medicine