303 progress... 6 weeks to go! Don't Panic.

Wowwww it's already October (3rd). Commence Mean Girls quotes all over everything in existence! In all seriousness... I am in shock that this semester is moving so quickly! I had to take a big test yesterday in Individual Art Review that determines if I will be participating or not. NO PRESSURE, ART DEPARTMENT. Rude.I thought while I had a minute I could update about my progress in 303 :) Everything is moving fairly smoothly and I am trying (trying so hard) to draw every day. Though time gets away from me, I always go back to my work and spend a few hours on what I have started. I completed the second series of 5 last week so... yeah I think I am on track!? I have 11 more drawings to complete in the next six weeks.

Series 2 Iteration 3

went back to this one and reworked it...

Results! Series 2 Iteration 1

The final iteration in this series is, by far, my favorite to date. I explored depth and texture and line.. all of which were different from previous iterations. I directly referenced bone marrow and the structures within bones and joints. As stated in previous posts, I basically let my reference images guide the direction my drawings take - this process led me to the following results...

Finished! Series 2 iteration 4

One pattern I have noticed while working on these is.. the entire process is emotionally and mentally exhausting. I spend several hours working on each drawing, examining and reexamining x-rays and texture studies. Listening to the music that was playing in my life during these events and announcements. I find that I can only create a few iterations per series because eventually I grow tired of the repetition of forms and creating cohesion between different iterations in each series. 

detail view

Most iterations have one or two commonalities in textures or forms, but generally they are all completely independent of each other in design and layout. I found myself creating more horizontal compositions with this second series, probably because of the suggestion of the pelvic region, hips, leg bones.. they demand more space. They literally hold the body up and keep us moving... which brings us to the next series.

detail view

As stated in the previous post, the following series is about my mom and dad and their various health issues and struggles from the past few years. My dad had surgery on his spine earlier this year and is recovering, happy and healthy, but holy MAN were the x-rays insane! He has huge screws in his spine, growth plates, fused bone tissue.. it's crazy. He had to wear a brace and has had all sorts of physical therapy since the initial surgery. Not to be morbid or weird.. but I was really excited to receive these images and work with them. There are so many different types of bone structures in the head, the face, the neck, etc. I was able to see the inner structures of the vertebrae as captured by the x-ray, which is super cool. There is a dense latticework of marrow that shows up in each image.

In addition to the images my dad sent, my mom sent me her images as well. She had bursitis and has had several issues with that diagnosis. I won't go into specifics, but bursitis makes it really hard to walk and limits your mobility.. Again, more things that happened while I was away at school! I have been struggling to feel connected to my family since I moved up here and when these hospital visits/procedures happen, I am kept in the loop through group messages and emails. My response to this communication? Drawing. I will be honest, I have struggled with this series so far. The events were fairly recent and the memories clear, but it's still scary to think about how many 'what ifs' were at play during each parent's procedures and treatments. As someone who has a bit (A BIT) of a control complex, I did not enjoy the not-knowing, the waiting for updates, the random texts about physical therapy or injections or whatever came to pass. In response, this series will be more directly representational of the family unit as a whole. I will explain..

Series 3 Iteration 1

This first iteration was abandoned in favor of the following drawings but I have since come back to it. The main object is featured in several pieces. The form on the left and the zig zag-type shape are meant to represent my dad. They somewhat resemble a spine and a jawline. My dad was struggling with arm and neck pain with his condition and I remember seeing him very tense in the face, fighting the pain. After viewing the x-rays, I saw the full scope of the problem and expanded my focus to the head as well as the spine and vertebrae. The other forms in the drawing represent myself, my sister, and my mom. The form at the bottom of the image represents my mom, the one to the right of that, myself. The form at the top represents my sister. I wanted to illustrate the connections we all had to my dad throughout this process. I came home from school/work to be there for surgery and recovery for my dad. I was told by a friend that the objects kind of look like satellites, circling around the greater forms..

detail view

 The second iteration in this series took on a more direct representational approach to the images I was seeing. I referenced the spine and its structures with very little abstraction but continued to explore the idea of 'satellite' forms or bodies in the composition. 

Series 3 Iteration 2

interaction of forms - detail view

beginnings of deconstruction

Working on this iteration presented interesting challenges that I will apply to the previous drawing. I wanted to make sure the satellite bodies appeared different from the main structure. I used differing structures and textures to create discontinuity in form and shape between the two ideas. I also wanted to echo the experiences my mom was having with her own condition so when drawing the satellite forms I created similar spaces in the bones as the ones found in the pelvis, the joints, and the various arterial structures found throughout all three. I maintained the abstraction aesthetic I wanted in my series as a whole, but there were definite skeletal forms in this iteration. The best part about this drawing? TURNING IT UPSIDE DOWN.

 See?! It completely changed... therein lies the power of perception and how we choose to view what is in front of us. I will create two more iterations in this series and then I am moving on to a series about my aunt and finally.. one about myself. That one will be the biggest challenge.. I'm not ready yet. Working my way up to it, literally.

The next step in this process takes WAY less patience because I am going digital! I decided to try and scan in my drawings for printing. Large. Scale. Prints. My dad sent me some rolls of HUGE canvas to print on. Because.. of all things.. the Design Lab on campus also has a 44 inch HP photo printer. NO KIDDING. So my first step was to scan in the drawings I wanted to work with.. and then..

 I had to set up the printer on my computer. Thankfully my dad is the graphic design/printing guru of the family so a quick couple of calls later, I was ready to go!

photo for scale - this thing is HUGE

I first printed onto regular inkjet photo paper, to see the level of detail I had reached through my scans... um. 400DPI did the trick nicely!

this print took about 25 minutes - so pretty!

 AGAIN, pictures for scale - this paper, these prints, they are huge. And I love that. Now I can see all the tiny details, the little drops of ink on the paper, the mistakes, the successes.. it's a hugely important process for me to examine my work closely. AND it forces the viewer to become part of what they are seeing; it transports them into the drawings and the environment created by each series. I am in love with this printer, and I don't care how weird that is.

In the midst of all the printing party going on.. I also decided to try and 3D print a portion of one of my drawings. I had uploaded an image into TinkerCAD, which has an option for 2D images being placed onto a base. Worth a try, right? I will be returning to the lab today to finish the print.

SO MANY things happening. Speaking of the lab! We are having the grand opening today at 3! The Digital Design Lab is finally complete - mostly - with Mac desktops, laptops, Xbox Kinect, four Makerbots, one Digitizer, sewing machines for wearables, soldering supplies and equipment, Raspberry Pi programming software and hardware, SCRATCH, Minecraft, GoPros... you name it, it's there! And it is available to future teachers to experiment and tinker with. I have been going each week (obviously, that's where my blog posts come from) to experiment with 3D printing and now with large format archival prints. No big deal. I'm just a huge teacher/learning nerd. I love it to pieces and today we get to celebrate the strides we have made as teacher-makers and tinkerers.

And I get to wear this sweet shirt!

 My professor asked if I would be in charge of the 3D printer corner - aka talk to visitors, faculty, and students about the learning potentials through 3D printing in the classroom. Super useful considering my presentation at the MAEA conference is in a month! I will also share with visitors my personal experiments with the technology and how I have utilized it to explore art and sculpture from drawings. It's going to be an awesome time and I get to promote my work too! Can't beat that :)

The large canvas prints were 43 inches wide and more than 50 inches long. THEY ARE BIGGER THAN THE WORK TABLES. I need to figure out some way to display them so they 
a. stay flattened for viewing
b. hang from the wall? 
c. stretch onto bars for display??

I am trying to figure out how I will show these large pieces.. they're too big for me to hold by myself! 









The smaller, thicker canvas print was around 18 inches wide and close to 30 inches long. I will definitely be playing with layout, layering of drawings, and sizing for these print experiments. In the meantime.. I have plans to cut up one of the large canvas prints and make it into something for class. It's always homework time.. always..

Seriously awesome prints on this canvas. Love it.

another huge print on the thinner, larger canvas 

Until the next post... I must go eat my lunch or I will be too too too cranky to function.

Ms. Kanak