The July 6 Arts Beat column misstated the specialty of Eric Finzi, a doctor who is also a painter. He is a dermasurgeon, not a plastic surgeon.
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The Surgeon's Canvases
"She's almost completely obliterated, but if you get back, she's gazing at you," he says.
In May, Finzi received national media attention for a small-scale study he did in which he found that injecting Botox into frown lines helps alleviate depression. His idea for the study sprang from another art exhibition that he created, based on photographs of women in a psychiatric ward in 1880s Paris.
  Chevy Chase plastic surgeon Eric Finzi wears protective gear while creating his resin paintings in his studio. (By Rachel Beckman -- The Washington Post) |
"Looking at these pictures, I was fascinated by their expressions," he says. "There were these incredible frowns on the psych ward. From across the room, you can tell that the person is in psychic pain." He started hypothesizing that maybe facial expression influences mood just as mood influences facial expression.
His worlds collide on the walls of his medical office, where about a dozen paintings hang. One of his abstract pieces adorns the cover of a brochure advertising his plastic surgery services.
Finzi made the psych-ward series and the "Alice in Wonderland" series at the same time. He usually bases his paintings on photographs or film stills. He used to do color sketches before he started painting, but realized they are useless because the resin does whatever it wants.
"I consider my paintings to be a movie," he says. "I'm the director and the resin is the principal actor. It's a joint venture."
It's also a dangerous venture: Resin fumes are toxic. To make sure he doesn't inhale any, Finzi wears a yellow "spacesuit" with a breathing tube while he paints. He also outfitted his art studio with an industrial ventilation system.
"If you're in there for a long time," he says, "it's a good way of slowly committing suicide."
Through the Looking Glass: Reflections on Lewis Carroll's Untold Stories, through Aug. 5 at Heineman Myers Contemporary Art, 4728 Hampden Lane, Bethesda. Tuesday-Saturday noon-6 p.m. and by appointment. Free. 301-951-7900.
