by Marilyn Wann

​It's the 4th of July. The next door neighbors have hung a U.S. flag on their house. It's not on a pole. It dangles vertically, like a pall. I still have the freedom not to hang a flag. I do not hang a U.S. flag. I still have the freedom not to undergo stomach amputation. I say, "No!" to so-called "weight-loss" surgery. This is the flag I made today. It's all white. Like freedom in the U.S. (Credit to Jasper Johns.)

​stomach #13: freedom
materials: staples; white paper plate that previously held a toasted rye bagel with cream cheese, tomato slices, and salt and pepper, from the local bagel shop; woven nylon placemat placed at the seat previously used by the artist's mother, who has been dead for not quite three years; teak table used continuously for more than a half century, for shared family meals in the artist's childhood home, which is seven miles from Disneyland (the "happiest place on earth") and 8.8 miles from the Nixon Library. Photo by Marilyn Wann

Pink- and white-iced, sugardot-pocked, Mother's circus animal cookies are one of my earliest memories. They were kept on a shelf in a metal cookie tin that only my mother opened. Occasionally. And then I would enjoy a few of the coveted animals before she put the tin away again. She loved them, too. She would bite into a lion or a hippo and close her eyes while she chewed. Then she'd chide me in mock horror for eating the animals' heads first. It seemed less violent to remove a leg or a torso before beheading them.

Why isn't there a word equivalent to 'beheading,' when stomachs are involved?

In honor of Mother's Day, here's a camel cookie nibbled into stomach shape. 

Our mother is often the person who first tells us — and shows us — how to eat. How to fill our stomachs. How to think and feel about our bodies, weight, food, and appetite.

What if we celebrated using our stomachs the way we celebrate using our hearts and minds? What if we protected stomachs from harm as we would these vital organs?

Make mom proud...eat a cookie!

stomach #12 - digestive biscuit
materials: Mother's circus animal cookie, nibbled and Photoshopped gently.
photo: Marilyn Wann

by Marilyn Wann

​What if we saw as many images of stomachs as we see of hearts or brains? ​ Would we more closely identify with this internal organ? Are you your brains, your heart, your guts, your stomach? Amid the ongoing terror of stomach amputation — so-called weight-loss surgery — would public opinion about this practice be different if we could see the damage that's done ​to otherwise healthy internal organs?

Here's hoping a stomach a day keeps the scalpel away...

stomach Rangoon
material: fried wonton with "crab" and cream cheese filling
photo; Marilyn Wann

stomach #11: after
photo: Marilyn Wann

by Marilyn Wann

​What if we saw as many images of stomachs as we see of hearts or brains? ​ Would we more closely identify with this internal organ? Are you your brains, your heart, your guts, your stomach?

Amid the ongoing terror of stomach amputation — so-called weight-loss surgery — would public opinion about this practice be different if we could see the damage that's done ​to otherwise healthy internal organs?

Here's hoping a stomach a day keeps the scalpel away...

stomach #10 - everything innard
materials: bagel, cream cheese, takeout box
photo: Marilyn Wann

​​by Marilyn Wann

​What if we saw as many images of stomachs as we see of hearts or brains? ​ Would we identify with this internal organ more? Are you your brain, your heart, your guts, your stomach?

Amid the ongoing terror of stomach amputation — so-called weight-loss surgery — would public opinion about this practice be different if we could see the damage that's done ​to otherwise healthy internal organs?

Here's hoping a stomach a day keeps the scalpel away...

stomach #9
materials: wood and nails (donated by Linda Garber), inner tube (from Scrap in San Francisco), the artist's urge to hit things with a hammer (i.e., inauguration day 2017)
photo: Marilyn Wann

​by Marilyn Wann

​What if we saw as many images of stomachs as we see of hearts or brains? ​ Would we identify with this internal organ more? Are you your brain, your heart, your guts, your stomach?

Amid the ongoing terror of stomach amputation — so-called weight-loss surgery — would public opinion about this practice be different if we could see the damage that's done ​to otherwise healthy internal organs?

Here's hoping a stomach a day keeps the scalpel away...

stomach #8 - gastro napolitano [before]
materials: personal pizza margherita, plate, water glass, pepper shaker, fork, knife, red pepper flakes, marble tabletop
photo: Marilyn Wann

stomach #8 - gastro napolitano [after]

non-material: The artist recalls attending a day-long conference about so-called weight-loss surgery at the local teaching hospital. The closing act of the day was a talk by a stomach amputator. He was originally from Italy and had an Italian accent. In his talk, he listed the gut rearrangement surgeries that had been tried since stomach amputation started — all the different ways of cutting apart the stomach or intestines and reattaching various parts of them to each other while leaving other parts dangling. He said the surgeries had gotten safer over the years. (A backward way of admitting they can do damage.) Then he attempted a joke. He said that the main danger of current surgeries was to the surgeon, because he would have to lean over a very large person's body and reach down to cut off their stomachs (all except a tiny flap at the end of the esophagus, about the size of a golf ball)...and his back would ache. He paused, anticipating laughter and sympathy for his suffering.

During the Q&A, the artist stood up and said that based on the criteria he listed, her weight alone would "qualify" her for stomach amputation, but that she would never consider doing it. Then she asked him what percentage of the patients he operates on have healthy, normally functioning stomachs. He said, "All of them! Their stomachs have to be healthy for us to do the surgery." Then he realized the import of the question and backtracked, saying, "After the recovery period, the remaining stomach functions normally, it's just much smaller."

The artist ate every morsel of her personal pizza. People who undergo stomach amputation, aka gastric bypass, are not typically able to eat more than a few bites of food. (Although their restricted stomachs may stretch over time.) They may need to drink small amounts of water throughout the day to avoid dehydration. They are strongly encouraged to take vitamins that are specially formulated to be more likely to be absorbed by their abbreviated systems. Even so, surgery survivors can face anemia and other, more serious nutrient deficiencies. They also need to be careful about what they eat, to try to avoid dumping syndrome. It's a bodily reaction to partially digested food entering the intestines and can involve intense cramps, diarrhea, vomiting, sweats, rapid heartbeat, wooziness, and confusion. Foods that contain sugar and simple carbohydrates (like pizza crust) can cause dumping syndrome. If that sounds like a headache for surgery survivors, don't offer them an aspirin or ibuprofen. They shouldn't use NSAIDs. They can cause stomach ulcers and endanger the tiny remaining stomach that people rely on. The artist wonders if that surgeon ever eats a whole pizza margherita. And if he ever chokes on it.

photo: Marilyn Wann

​by Marilyn Wann

​What if we saw as many images of stomachs as we see of hearts or brains? ​ Would we identify with this internal organ more? Are you your brain, your heart, your guts, your stomach?

Amid the ongoing terror of stomach amputation — so-called weight-loss surgery — would public opinion about this practice be different if we could see the damage that's done ​to otherwise healthy internal organs?

Here's hoping a stomach a day keeps the scalpel away...

stomach #7
materials: light-up mini googly animal ages 3+, Photoshop
photo: Marilyn Wann

by Marilyn Wann

​What if we saw as many images of stomachs as we see of hearts or brains? ​ Would we identify with this internal organ more? Are you your brain, your heart, your guts, your stomach?

Amid the ongoing terror of stomach amputation — so-called weight-loss surgery — would public opinion about this practice be different if we could see the damage that's done ​to otherwise healthy internal organs?

Here's hoping a stomach a day keeps the scalpel away...
​

stomach #6
materials: upholstery leather and stuffing from the reclining chair used for 25 years by the artist's mother (deceased in 2015 at age 91; labelled fat much of her life; survivor of medical weight-loss advice including an 800-calorie/day diet during her pregnancy with the artist and a year-long 400-calorie/day OptiFast diet), whose death was precipitated by a fall and cracked ribs that she suffered in a doctor's weigh-in room; cashew.
photo: Marilyn Wann

stomach #6
materials: cashew, a favorite food of the artist's mother, hidden inside stomach #6
photo: Marilyn Wann

​by Marilyn Wann

​What if we saw as many cute images of stomachs as we see of hearts, or even of brains? ​

Would public opinion about this practice be different if we could see the damage done 
​to otherwise healthy internal organs?

Given the ongoing terror of stomach amputation — so-called weight-loss surgery — 
here's hoping ​a stomach a day keeps the scalpel away...

by Marilyn Wann

​What if we saw as many cute images of stomachs as we see of hearts, or even of brains? ​

Would public opinion about this practice be different if we could see the damage done 
​to otherwise healthy internal organs?

Given the ongoing terror of stomach amputation — so-called weight-loss surgery — 
here's hoping ​a stomach a day keeps the scalpel away...

This stomach was originally created on January 2, 2017. Some stomachs are found objects. In the tradition of Robert Rauschenberg erasing a deKooning drawing, this stomach is a series of images of a piece of art from the Frank Stella retrospective show at the de Young museum in San Francisco, photographed to look especially stomach-esque.