the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body.
One of my best friends is Dr. John(Jay) P. Clark D.O. We first met in about 2002 when he started to refer his patients to me for vascular surgery onsults. He was a solo practitioner Family Practice physician. I was working in a large cardiology group and in 2003, left to have my own private practice. He continued to send his patients to me and that led to our close and great friendship.
Jay has had several medical setbacks. This all started with a spinal stenosis and two major spine/spinal cord surgeries that left him partially paralyzed in his lower extremities. He then had a stroke that also affected his upper extremities. Since then he has needed to be in a wheel chair most of the time,however he is able to walk up a few steps or a short distance with a walker. To keep him from getting cabin fever, but also because I really enjoy our discussions, I would pick him up and we'd go to lunch, dinner or some form of entertainment. The entertainment would usually be live music at a local bar.
Something you need to know about Jay is that before going to Medical School he was an art major at Drake University(a large private University/Law School, more on that in another post). While an accomplished artist after he entered Medical school he really didn't do any significant art for almost 50 years. Although, for my 50th birthday he made me a great birthday card and won the prize for best b'day card that year.
We've been going out together 2 or 3 times a week for about 4 years when last January he brought some paper and Sharpies with him. When we got to the bar he stated sketching the performers while they played. I was amazed at the sketch that he made. However, something else was even more amazing.
Because of both his stroke and the medication that he is on for the last three years he would have a tendency to fall asleep every 10 to 15 minutes. We would go out to listen to music and I would need to poke him several times each hour. Of course he would insist that he hadn't fallen asleep but was just resting his eyes, Right! Well, an amazing thing happened. Once he started sketching the musicians, he would never fall asleep. There have been times that, at a music festival, he would be sketching for 10 to 12 hours and never once fall asleep.
The really amazing part of all this was the magnificent sketches that he would produce. Something you need to know is that he would insist on being as close to the stage as he could get, sometimes insisting I put him right in the middle of the dance floor space. This was because of his severe macular degeneration, a condition that robs you of your vision, yet he was still amazingly able to continue sketching. This would mean that everyone would see what he was doing. The obvious question from the band was can we have it?, and from others in the audience was, can we buy it? So, he came up with a number of $20 for each sketch.. One night he even made $150 (someone gave him a fifty and when he went to give change the guy said "keep it").
His sketches don't just capture the image of the musicians but they capture the music and the movement of the musicians as you can see in the couple of sketches I've attached. The other amazing thing about him sketching is that the faster the music tempo is the faster he draws. Typically it would take him anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes to do a picture( last week he took two hours to sketch the Des Moines Jazz Orchestra with 25 members). However, if the music goes fast he draws faster. He drew a five piece band in 3 minutes while they were playing Wipeout.
I call this Synesthesia because I feel it meets the true meaning of the word. Jay feels the music and sees the movement and converts that through feel into a sketch that lets you, through your sight, experience the music, the sounds, the movement and Jays interpretation all at once.
We now go out anywhere from three to five times each week. I hope this goes on for many years. It gives me joy seeing him enthralled with life that this brings him.
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