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"It was a physical release of emotion for me," she says.

The layered pieces document her father's seven-month fight with sepsis, a life-threatening condition when the body's response to infection causes inflammation that can destroy organs. They also represent her feelings of uncertainty and grief.

We talked with Rodgers, a high school art teacher in Philadelphia, about how she created the artworks. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Why did you choose maps to visualize your father's illness and death?

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Strata Of Memories Courtesy of Jennifer Rodgers hide caption

itoggle caption Courtesy of Jennifer Rodgers

Strata Of Memories

Courtesy of Jennifer Rodgers

I found a book called Geography of Loss by Patti Digh, and that has been my guidebook. A map organizes a place in a certain way and we use them to get us from one point to the next. My maps have become a way to get from a point in my life where I was very much grieving to another point where I came to a resolution with some of it.

In Strata of Memories, gold plays a key role. Why is that?

The gold comes from the idea of using a precious metal to heal. The Japanese have an art called Kintsugi that is over 500 years old. Instead of taking a bowl or mug that has been broken and throwing it out, the pieces are put back together with gold. The gold heals the broken piece of pottery and actually makes it more precious and more valuable.

In The Last Day there are a series of lines that appear to be intentional.

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Last Day Courtesy of Jennifer Rodgers hide caption

itoggle caption Courtesy of Jennifer Rodgers

Last Day

Courtesy of Jennifer Rodgers

The day he died we spent a lot of time in the waiting room outside the ICU and it was a lot of walking back and forth. I wanted to mimic the physical steps I took as the whole day was unfolding, almost as a way for me to honor that day.

[The red is] symbolic of sepsis and what it did to my dad's body, and watching someone die from sepsis, which was truly devastating.

Is it difficult to look back on these images?

To look at them, not so much. To talk about them and actually think about what was happening at the time, that is definitely difficult. At the same time it feels very healing to me. I don't know any other way to get through what became the most challenging time in my life. I didn't know any other way than to make art about it.

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Rodgers uses abstract shapes of home and movement to evoke her father's journey to living in a hospital in Liminal Space. Courtesy of Jennifer Rodgers hide caption

itoggle caption Courtesy of Jennifer Rodgers

Rodgers uses abstract shapes of home and movement to evoke her father's journey to living in a hospital in Liminal Space.

Courtesy of Jennifer Rodgers

Rodgers has three pieces on display through June 10th at the Henry Gallery at Penn State University, Great Valley Campus.

dying

death and dying

end of life care

Infectious Disease

Visual Arts

Swayambhunath — also known as the Monkey Temple, for its holy, furry dwellers that swing from the rosewood trees — is one of the oldest and most sacred Buddhist sites in Nepal's Kathmandu Valley, an important pilgrimage destination for Hindus as well as Buddhists. It was also one of the worst damaged by last month's earthquake.

At the site, Nepali police soldiers shovel broken bricks and sand into garbage baskets. They're much more cautious cleaning up here than at many other devastated places: There's a chance they could still find precious, centuries-old statues and other artifacts in the rubble.

Asia

To Restore Its Shattered Treasures, Nepal Has A Secret Weapon

Volunteers stand precariously atop a two-story-high pile of crumbled bricks, scouring it for relics. A temple nearby, part of the site's hilltop complex, has big cracks and looks like it could topple and crush them at any minute.

This is dangerous, important work, says Nepal's undersecretary of the Department of Archaeology, Suresh Shrestha, who's peeled off his dust mask and is taking a break in the shade.

"There are so many artifacts because in Hinduism and Buddhism, there are lots and lots of gods and goddesses," he says.

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Buddhist monks recover a statue of a Buddhist deity from a monastery at Swayambhunath. Niranjan Shrestha/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Niranjan Shrestha/AP

Buddhist monks recover a statue of a Buddhist deity from a monastery at Swayambhunath.

Niranjan Shrestha/AP

Nepal's government says at least 70 ancient, sacred sites in the Kathmandu Valley were severely damaged or destroyed by the earthquake. The area is home to seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites; Swayambhunath is one of them.

With help from the United Nations, every ancient object that's found intact at the site from now on will be inventoried and stored in a secure place to protect from looters. Archaeologists fear that in the chaos following the quake, some artifacts were lost or stolen.

The oldest structure there, a Buddhist monument known as a stupa, dates from the fifth century. "It is intact," says Christian Manhart, UNESCO's country representative for Nepal. "We are lucky."

Manhart says it's difficult to know at this point how much of the Swayambhunath complex can be restored. But, he says, "I'm rather optimistic. We have all these architectural features like sculptures, carved wooden beams, cornerstones, which can be reused for construction."

Despite the damage, the most sacred rituals are continuing — including worship five times a day.

Goats and Soda

Nepal's Medical Worries: Crowded Hospitals, Open Wounds

"We have [a] very big problem, but we do not stop the praying," says Ashok Buddhacharya, a priest who says his family roots at the temple extend back to the fifth century. "Ritual praying is continuing."

Buddhacharya sits on a mat underneath a large, blue tarp. It's where he and his wife and children and other families are cooking and sleeping, since their living quarters here were reduced to rubble.

"These are historical, more than 1,000 years old, the stupas, the metal things, the statues," he says. "We cannot make a repeat, you see."

That is, they can't just rebuild them.

That's why archaeologists feel a sense of urgency, here and at other sites, as they work around the clock to recover what they can.

ancient relics

antiquities

World Heritage

archaeology

Nepal

looting

Earthquake

Carly Fiorina is expected to declare her candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination Monday morning in a video. Fiorina is perhaps best known as the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, the first woman to lead a Fortune 20 company. She was ousted after a boardroom struggle in 2005.

She served as a surrogate in John McCain's 2008 Presidential campaign, and in 2010 ran for the U.S. Senate from California, losing to Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer.

Here are five things you may not know or remember about Fiorina:

1) She's a law school dropout

After she got her under graduate degree from Stanford (in medieval history and philosophy), Fiorina's father, a federal appeals court judge, suggested his daughter go to law school. Fiorina did, but said studying law gave her "blinding headaches every day" so she dropped out after a semester. Not to worry, she does have graduate business degrees from Maryland and MIT.

2) She started her career as a Kelly girl

Fiorina says one of her first jobs was with temporary agency Kelly Services whose workers, mostly women, were dubbed "Kelly girls." She also worked secretarial positions while in college, including a stint filing and typing for Hewlett-Packard, the tech company she would eventually lead.

3) She is a cancer survivor

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Carly Fiorina, having just completed breast cancer treatment, announced her run for California Senate in 2009. Damian Dovarganes/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Damian Dovarganes/AP

Carly Fiorina, having just completed breast cancer treatment, announced her run for California Senate in 2009.

Damian Dovarganes/AP

Fiorina was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009, and underwent a double mastectomy. At campaign appearances, women often come up to her to say they too are cancer survivors. "It's a sisterhood", she says.

4) Her husband was a tow truck driver

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Carly Fiorina, and her husband Frank Fiorina, on election day 2010, when she ran for Senate from California. Paul Sakuma/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Paul Sakuma/AP

Carly Fiorina, and her husband Frank Fiorina, on election day 2010, when she ran for Senate from California.

Paul Sakuma/AP

Much like Fiorina, her husband Frank Fiorina started off small, driving a tow truck for a family-owned body shop. He eventually became an executive at AT&T.

5) She ran one of the most (in)famous campaign ads ever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKWlOxhSIKk

In 2010 Fiorina, running for the U.S. Senate, ran an ad that showed a flock of sheep grazing peacefully in a pasture, when suddenly one is shown with scary red eyes. The narrator says Fiorina's opponent, Tom Campbell, was not a true conservative — "a wolf in sheep's clothing." The spot came to be known as the demon sheep ad.

John Lydon, a.k.a. Johnny Rotten, is a name that conjures images of a scrawny punk thrashing around the stage with The Sex Pistols, giving confrontational interviews with MTV VJs, or just generally raising hell. Maybe you think of his innovative post-punk band Public Image Ltd. Or, well, his stints on reality shows and nature documentaries.

In any case, Lydon thought it was time to set the record straight with his memoir, Anger Is An Energy.

Anger Is An Energy

My Life Uncensored

by John Lydon and Andrew Perry

Hardcover, 536 pages | purchase

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"After reading so much rubbish written about me over the years, it became obvious that I had to just tell it like it is," Lydon says. "Rather than let people carry on with their estimation that I'm a foul-mouthed yob."

And to prove he's not a foul-mouthed yob, at least not all the time, Lydon spoke with NPR's Arun Rath about losing his memory to meningitis at 7, being a threat to civilization (and loving it) and why he's appeared on reality TV shows.

There's an incredible story here I'd never heard before. When you were 7 years old, you contacted meningitis, were very ill, and you lost your memory.

I was in a hospital for nearly a year. I was in a coma for the first few months of that. And when I came out of the coma, nothing. Everything was gone. Everything. I couldn't even really communicate or talk even though I felt I was. I didn't actually know who I was or why I was there or where there was. The process of finding out who I was took a long, long time.

Most 7- and 8-year-olds don't even have to think about who they are.

No. It's all paid off, you know, for me in the long run because doctors had informed my mom and dad to be kind of hard on me, to get me angry, to keep the rage up. By keeping me in that state of mind and maybe things would suddenly jump back into place. This is where I got the form of anger as an energy. Without that energy, I might just have wallowed into, well, self-pity or something far worse. I never probably full recouped.

You write about your own anger, but I was thinking about the anger that was directed at you when you hit the scene in the '70s. I think people may have a hard time remembering what that was like now. People were talking about you like you were a threat to civilization.

[Sniggers.] Why, thank you, that's a really nice compliment. [Laughs.]

What was that like for a young man?

It was quite preposterous to see adults behave so violently and so negatively to basically — what am I exercising here? — freedom of thought and my own opinions on the institutions, the powers that be. Somebody has to say these things because there's no exaggeration in it. These are all tragic situations that need to be uncovered and stopped. And I'm quite good at that.

You've kept your energy up. People that were close to you on the scene — I think of Sid Vicious who self-destructed. And you were a young man thrown quickly into this world of indefinite indulgence, but you didn't self-destruct.

No, well I had quite a lot to claw back from, didn't I?

Was it as simple as that?

Yeah, and I'm never ever ever going to be the kind of person that's going to throw his life away. The whole drug culture that permeates the rock 'n' roll universe — well, you could look at it this way: drugs could be recreational, but if you're using drugs to really avoid a reality, that's when problems come in. Heroin is very important to the mentally deficient and insecure.

Now, all of us, as human beings, we all have weaknesses. We all feel inadequate. We all have painful experiences we can't quite seem to fess up to. And we're all shy of explaining ourselves openly and fully in front of human beings. But that don't mean you should run away from it. My way is that I embrace these things and made them part of my character, my personality, and I think gives me that glorious word that I celebrate: integrity.

We know you kind of hate celebrity culture, but you've also taken part in to a certain extent. You've written about the reality TV shows —

It's not much like I could avoid, is it? The reality TV show — well, we talk about I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here is a European show. I did that for charity and raised a small fortune. Now if that's celebrity, yippee! You know?

And you got to swim with sharks.

Ah. We came up with the idea of some quite extreme diving outfits. Mine was yellow and black, so I looked like a really ridiculous bumble bee. I mean, really dangerous colors at the time, you would be thinking to be learning to dive. But we found since — as science has recently discovered — that these are good, natural shark-repellent ideas. Well, hello, Johnny was doing this quite some time ago. Where's my money? You know, "Thank you, science."

It's been like that, really, throughout my life. People are prepared to absolutely condemn me, but then behind my back, rush off and copy it. I've spent my whole life trying to be myself. I'm not emulating other human beings, not trying to fit into what society thinks it has the right to dictate to me about what is right or wrong. Who's right or wrong here? Well, it's either me or the whole of society.

Well, the whole of society has come around on you being yourself —

So you're in agreement with me.

Well, you've been described as a beloved figure now. I've even seen you described as a national treasure in Britain. How's that for a kick in the hat?

It sounds like a race horse. I've heard the rumors. Oh, they're trying to give me an O.B.E. or an M.B.E. or whatever that is. Nope, not interested.

Whether or not we call you a national treasure —

You wouldn't say that if you saw the state of my underpants. I tell you. Let's be honest.

[Laughing.] I do find a very British attitude running through this book. What you described earlier: you don't wallow in your pain.

No, my mom and dad would never tolerate self-pity. And although that was a painful experience, to learn that's actually the correct way of living a life — well, I'm just happy to be this way. I can't imagine trying to fit in with the rest of the honky donkeys out there. It's just not worth it.

Read an excerpt of Anger Is An Energy