Art Therapy №2: Elephantitis

My dad constantly reminded those close to him that he had “half a brain.” Half may have been overstating it. But yah, in 1986 a portion of his brain was removed to save his life from encephalitis induced seizures. The occupational therapy team at the time expected he’d never lead a productive life much less practice Law ever again. If you knew him, Marcus was not one to do anything anyone ever expected. He also loved a good fuck you. So, in maybe his biggest fuck you of all time, he proved them wrong. He recovered, started his own law firm, raised us to follow our own creative pursuits, lived to be a proud grandfather of four and made more on top of his scrambled brain than his myopic care team could see. When I made this piece it seemed like a mess, but looking deeper I saw what no one else could.

Starting with my dad’s colors, I engaged the left and right hemispheres simultaneously scribbling with one color in each hand. It wasn’t pure symmetry. First came a skull, because hard edged dead dad. Then more scribbling and the shapes that formed on top of that. Stepping away what I saw was elephant ears and a trunk, the symbol for my youngest son Ezra who fortunately he got to meet. It objectively looks menacing, but to me I see the hope that Ezra and all the grandkids were a joy and satisfaction he could see through all the troubled parts.

The non-believers were certain he was too brain damaged to come back because he compulsively cracked offensive non sequitur jokes in speech therapy. Idiots. There could not possibly have been any greater sign that he was in fact on the path to recovery than what came to be called his “aphaisic humor”. It was classic Marcus Teichner. He took chances in humor and life and didn’t care if you liked it. When I look at this piece I see those huge balls he had, the huge balls to fight and make a new life on top of disaster.