Madeline Newcomb
Eighth Circle, Bolgia Nine

AwardBlue Ribbon

SchoolMidview High School

CityGrafton, Ohio

TeacherJudy Otten

InternAbigail Carney

MediumAcrylic on Canvas

Artist's Statement

Eighth Circle, Bolgia Nine is an interpretation of Chiari malformation and tethered cord. The faceless figure, representing the thousands of patients who suffer from the condition, desperately clings to a decaying cloth, representing sanity and health. Below is dark chaos, symbolic of the pain and deterioration that Chiari malformation and the tethered cord cause. The sufferer's spine is tearing out of his back, with the spinal cord chained to it, as a metaphor for tethered cord, dragging the patient downwards. The title comes from Dante's Inferno: a place where souls are torn apart eternally, representative of the futility of most treatments.