S4E10 Are We All Works of Art? (w/ Fred Harwin)

Rosh Hashanah is traditionally called the Birthday of the World. I've been thinking about the difference between two ways of talking about the world's beginning. The scientific account describes the world simply coming into being, developing from its earliest state, but our tradition says something different: the world was created. One implication for this podcast: if the world was created, we can approach it the way we approach a work of art, with appreciation and with wonder as to what it means. The Jewish tradition asks us to truly see, not to glance, but to give sustained attention to what is all around us.

My guest this week, Fred Harwin, has spent his life looking more closely than almost anyone. He has studied the textures of living tissue in the operating room at two in the morning, the flecks of color in a stranger's iris from a few inches away, and the shadow of Douglas firs moving across his garden. Fred is an ocularist, someone who makes prosthetic eyes. Before that, he was a medical illustrator who spent years standing behind Dr. Albert Starr in the OR to illustrate the Manual of Cardiac Surgery, a work that may be Fred's masterwork. Fred has a background in the fine arts, and he brought that skill and artistic vision to his work in the medical field.

We talk about why he insisted on drawing every procedure before a word of text was written, and how he created the illusion of a dilating pupil with nothing but paint and light. Fred also explains why making an eye for a self-conscious teenager became his work of tikkun olam, the repair of the world. Along the way, we explore the human body as a work of art and the Hebrew root that connects emunah, faith, with omanut, art. Coming just after Rosh Hashanah, this felt like the right conversation to have. I hope you enjoy this winding theological, medical, and artistic conversation with Fred Harwin. Thanks so much for listening.

Show notes / references

Fred Harwin's website (includes a media page collecting his press and video coverage): https://www.fredharwin.com/fred-harwin-movie-and-media.php OPB, Oregon Art Beat: "Fred Harwin Hand-Paints Windows To The Soul" (2017). This is the mini-documentary you mention in the episode. It shows how he molds, carves, paints, and polishes a prosthetic eye, work that takes around eight hours over four visits with the patient. The Kid Should See This Article: https://www.opb.org/television/programs/oregon-art-beat/article/eye-paint-prosthetic-fred-harwin-ocula