Guardians of Bloom
SUNDUS MALIK UMKC MEDICAL STUDENT
Medium: Acrylic painting on canvas Artist’s statement: This piece celebrates balance and vitality through mirrored pink leopards flanking a central vase bursting with vibrant foliage. The symmetry evokes harmony, while the bold colors suggest playful energy and natural elegance. Inspired by jungle myths and ornamental design, the piece blends wildness with refinement, portraying the leopards as protectors of life and beauty. Their turquoise eyes hint at mystery, drawing viewers into a dreamlike realm.
Burning the Old Year Adaptation
PARITOSH PATEL UMKC MEDICAL STUDENT
Golden memories swallow themselves in seconds. A potpourri of celebrations and events, commemorations and anniversaries, fall and allow themselves to be joyfully picked back up
So much of any year is flammable, Through this fire we become actors, unvarnished carpenters, people-pleasers, on-demand friends, rigid ventriloquists We break time to celebrate the accomplishments of each mask we wear All the while glancing over the scars and tears of our worn costumes Refusing to realize how the suit wears on us
Where there was growth and learning, was lost in our forgoing of the present moment We shout, celebrate, and leave the space in search of another and so I begin again with ignorance
Time couldn’t hold memories I shaped so I let them go In search of another to rejoice, This time in the present These memories will endure a fiery silence, the desire to replace them crackle after the blazing dies, with stories of personal growth and laughter They wash away, and are thrown back onto the shore, like grains of sand on the beach
The Counseling's of a Painkiller
HUNTER CAMPBELL UMKC MEDICAL STUDENT
I will heal you. You’ll find me at your worst. I will make it worse. You will want to take me; I will beg to be taken.
I will hollow out homes, shatter breathless families, turn hope into habit, habit into hunger.
By the time you stop needing me, you’ll already belong to me.
When you can’t find me clean, you’ll take me cut, with starch, with dry wall, with xylazine, with fentanyl, with anything.
And when you stop breathing, your muscles will scream, but you will not.