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On the left side of my art piece, I wanted to creatively depict how proteins in the blood, more specifically von Willebrand factor, help in the process of hemostasis. In the sky, I show red blood cells in red discs, unactivated and activated platelets in white, and coiled and uncoiled von Willebrand factor in light purple. Higher in the piece, coiled von Willebrand factor doesn’t interact with surrounding elements until it attaches to the injury site. Once it uncoils at the site, platelets that were once normal white dots, will attach to von Willebrand factor and activate, turning into star shapes. More and more platelets will attach and activate until a plug is formed to stop red blood cells and blood from leaking through. Because activated platelets looked so much like stars to me, I thought it would be fun to depict the process of hemostasis in the sky, depicting platelets as stars and von Willebrand factor as the lines that help form constellations.
On the right side, I wanted to creatively show how the absence of von Willebrand factor, results in hemostasis failing to happen. I also wanted to show VWD uniquely by depicting it as rain falling on the person impacted by the symptoms of long and heavy bleeding.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GIpY7Pr2YU76qwOZh31vUsVq9anOPAtqgy75EgqhwJE/edit?usp=sharing
This is the link to my essay for more information on my project and the research behind it.
Mari’s objective was to describe disorders of blood and how they can be treated. She described the disease Von Willebrand disease. Which is how the body can’t form clots properly which can lead to prolonged periods of bleeding. Mari’s project was a drawing that depicts how the body is supposed to clot and block the “rain” but in this case the rain is blood. The other side is how the body can’t clot which leads to the everlasting blood rain. Their drawings showcase a girl in sitting in the rain, the girl is curled into a ball which gives the impression that it is the diseased side without having to label anything. The starry sky formed by the platelets on the left side gives an impression of bliss. Probably because the body is performing how it is supposed to.