Science and Art

I just finished a book that deals with connections between art and science, and I thought I would share it. Its called An Anthropologist on Mars and its by Oliver Sacks who is a neurologist. It is a group of seven case studies dealing with how neurological disorders can affect creativity. One of the case studies is of a painter and how he loses his sight after a car crash. It touches on how it changes his art and his perception of the world. What is interesting is that the man's visual memory changes to the point where he can't imagine te world in color but only in different shades of gray. It talks a lot about how much color infiltrates art, even in the undertones of black and white works, and how color is sort of taken for granted. Another story is about an accomplished child artist who has autism. This story touches on the idea that different neurological disorders produce their own unique type of art. The book is a really easy read and I would suggest it to anyone that is curious about how the brain, and its disorders, affect the concept of art.

the journey is the destination

This is a link to one of my favorite books. It's a compilation of Dan Eldon's journals which are filled of collages. He was a photo journalist in many African countries and was killed by the people he was trying to help at age 22. His mom (and sister?) compiled this book using Dan's journals. It inspires me to make art when I'm out of ideas.

Here are some images from the Comic Abstraction Show I mentioned in class, I'll return the book tomorrow, so check it out if you're interested. The last image is by Janet Fish, who Sarah mentioned.

The Artist's Survival Kit

During the conversation we had at the end of class today, I decided that Keri Smith's Artist's Survival Kit would be a really fantastic thing to share with you all. A friend showed it to me sometime in high school--it's a really great set of PDFs you print out and cut up into little cards/notes/whatever. There are "What to do When You're Stuck" cards, a "Permission to Make Mistakes" card, and a "How to Feel Miserable as an Artist" card, among others. I like the rest of Smith's website, too (particularly her 100 ideas and her collage experiment).

Perspective types and the science of representation

An interesting collection of images and descriptions of perspective techniques from an MIT class taught by Fredo Durand at the lab for computer science.  Here is a link to the main page for the class- looks amazing.

Cyborg Bodies

Found this interesting link to altered bodies in art- go backwards also to the main Cyborg Bodies page.

Robert Lazzarini

Anamorphic sculptures. 

This information from an exhibition he had at Pierogi gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is helpful, as is this page from the Deitch Projects gallery. These have an interesting relationship to still life and to drawing, even though they are three-dimensional works. 

Mark Tansey

Anamorphic Painting- look at this from a 45 degree angle.

Marla Olmstead, Child Artist

The child painter from upstate New York. It turns out that there is a documentary that came out this past fall called My Kid Could Paint That. Wikipedia explains the drama.

Painting Apparatus

And for a Wesleyan made painting machine:

Artists mentioned in class

Tracy mentioned this artist, Molly Springfield. Her drawings are multi-layered in their point of reference- a drawing of a book which contains of a reproduction of a photocopy of a report, drawings of index cards with information obliterated, etc. Can anyone find a good piece of text about her?

I also mentioned Amy Adler, who takes photographs of drawings and then destroys the original.This is an article you may find helpful, though there are others on her site which I didn't read.

Janine Antoni is the artist who visited Wes last year. Her piece Loving Care is pictured here- we mentioned that she mopped or painted the floor using her hair dipped in dye.

Emma mentioned a show she saw in Boston at the MFA, Drawing: a Broader Definition. This exhibition includes works from the museum's collection which relate to drawing- mostly historical objects such as plates and vessels. The show is actually up until May 4th.

Andy Warhol book

Alex asked for a reminder of the Andy Warhol book we were discussing. It is The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (from A to B and Back Again.)

Dale Chihuly, glass sculptor

Dale Chihuly
Glass sculptor from Seattle that we were discussing

Article about the copyright lawsuit involving Chihuly and assistants who went on to make similar work.

Chihuly also founded an excellent school and residency program for glass, art and crafts in Washington called Pilchuck, which has a summer program you might be interested in.

Rauchenberg's Erased Dekooning drawing

Robert Rauchenberg's erased Dekooning drawing
After Clicking "start program," look for the link "What's the Big Idea?" That link has a good mini-film of Rauchenberg- he explains how he made the piece.

Painting Elephants and Cats

Painting Elephants
Amazing!

Painting Cats
Insane. Is this for real? My brother found this and thinks it is a hoax, but I'm not sure. This page doubts the reality of the cat artists, and links to some classic cat-making-art pages.