What I did this week:
Drawing/sketching: 2 1/2 hours
Research at the Duderstadt/online and checking books out: 2 hour
Conversations with Joe Trumpey, John Leyland, Amanda: 1 1/2 hour
Jazzed up my studio: 45 mins


At the end of last week I felt a little lost and didn't know what direction to go in with my IP. I had so many interests and methods I wanted to address, but I knew that I couldn't do them all. I started browsing through some of the images I had collected over the summer and stopped on this particular one (below) of microalgae that researchers are now discovering can be used to create a diesel-like fuel. I have always been atracted to organic and biomorhpic looking photos, with the twisting, turning, and repitition.

My mind immediatly went to photosynthesis after seeing this image.PHotosynthesis is an incredibly important process, yet I had not though about it since my highschool science class. Why? Well, probably because I cannot see it happening around me and because of the micro level that it's happeneing at. The idea of continual enery transfer between the the elements and the autotrophs struck a chord and I began looking at a specicic type of organisms that photosynethesize called phytoplankton. This is where I began to find images of diatoms and green algae that I eventually sketched and painted for our "make something" asignment.

I decided to draw for the assignment instead of create mock-up sculptures of the organisms because I feel that I discover aspects of the objects that I may have not noticed origionally. For instance, I realized that in the particular Diatom I was drawing that there was one hole surrounded by six othere holes that formed this connecting pattern with the rest of the holes in the structure. This was facinating to me and I really would like to look into how these organisms grow and multiply. Here is a picture of one of the Diatoms I drew.

After looking through lots of images and text about how these different organisms function and feed themselves I started looking for artists who delt with this kind of subject matter. I was looking into different Bio artists and then my friend suggested I look ino this woman named Belma Kapetanovic. She is an artist who recently completed her masters and is based in London. She is a textiles and fabric designer and most of her Masters work takes inspiration from nature. In her own words " The designs are based on deconstructing elements of the natural enviornment inorder to develop unfimilar abstract motifs that posses a fantastical, otherworldly quality, thus inspiring new perceptions of the natural world in the audience". She refrences many organisms from barnacles to tree stumps. I cannot post any of her images here but here is the website address: http://www.designbybelma.com/.

Her work is bright and imaginative and takes refrence from some of the same things I had been researching already. As she states above, she takes familiar structures and objects from nature and creates new unfamiliar objects that allow you to look and percieve nature in a new way. In many ways I want to bring a some 'wonder' back into this world for other people.

I have been thinking alot about material lately and decided that I want to use clay for sure, but I also want to use/explore more into fibers.

After having my meeting with Janie I am feeling better about my project and process, and I really just want to focus myself on what I'm interested in now. So, as suggested by Janie to continue drawing, I would like to do 4 to 8 quick sketches a day, maybe less if I spend more time on a particular one. I want to not only sketch the organisms I'm seeing (in a 2 and 3 dimensional form) but I also want to start creating my own organisms based off of forms or ideas I'm observing through my research. I also wan tot see if I can get in contact with the Center for Great Lakes and Aquatic Sciences here at the University and try to get in the labs and look at these diatoms close up!