THE SURGEON AND THE ARTIST | Katrina Liou

“The hands of an artist and the hands of a surgeon are more alike than they may seem. Whether it’s suturing a wound or creating a new piece of self-expression, the surgeon’s and the artist’s hands consist of the same anatomy. A single pair of hands can hold multiple identities at once. As I walk toward my future as an artist and a physician, I think about how my hands are capable of both art and science.”

Katrina Liou is a first-year medical student at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. As an undergraduate, she studied product design and did her Masters in mechanical engineering at Stanford University. Her artwork explores themes of imperfection, human anatomy and the human condition, often asking “What does it mean to be human?”  She depicts the human body to explore the deeply hidden subtleties of the individual, and in metaphoric imagery of human interaction, she searches for hints of character, personality and secrets to embed in the portrayal of flesh, folds of skin and fat. Examining the human condition through an anatomical lens allows her to engage in an interdisciplinary field that combines both art and science. katrina.liou