The Acupuncturist, Hiding from the Camera

The Acupuncturist, Hiding from the Camera (from the series: Still Lives)

I’d been threatening to take a photo of Jeanne Evans for months and she had been assuring me that she didn’t need an encounter with a camera. Jeanne is my acupuncturist. Her clinic is at White Crane on Congress in Austin. She has fun sticking needles in to me every couple of weeks or so. She tells me regularly that my spleen pulse is deficient and then with the help of a few needles and smoldering moxa (which is Mugwort herb, I believe) she moves my chi around in the direction of the spleen.

Sometimes I think I can sense it moving. I lie there with needles sticking out of my legs and arms and face, wondering whether I’m actually sensing chi or just imagining I’m sensing chi. Either way I don’t suppose it matters much. I came to Jeanne about a year ago with a frozen shoulder and she fixed it almost completely in a single session. I was impressed. I came to her last week with a camera and she tried to escape from it, but I caught her hiding in a corner.

Jeanne is a healer. She makes a difference to people’s lives.