Showing posts with label UofSC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UofSC. Show all posts

Friday, August 26, 2022

Six Month Studio Round Up

I love spending my summers being creative, whether it's working on art projects in my studio or doing my daughter's hair in pretty braids and weaves. What I look forward to the most in my studio practice is the feeling of satisfaction when I'm done. One of my favorite places to go plein air painting is the botanical gardens at the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden. I forget about the sweltering summer heat when I'm painting or drawing the landscape.


On the left is a portrait of Dawn Hunter's daughter and on the right is a painting of white daisies by artist Dawn Hunter.


Darcy and her back-to-school summertime braids weaved by yours truly, and my White Daisy mixed media drawing completed at the Riverbanks Zoo.




Spring Exhibitions


University of South Carolina's academic year ended with a "high" for me this past spring. My artwork was featured in three exhibitions: one in California at the Cabrillo Gallery, Cabrillo College, of the greater Los Angeles area. It was a group exhibition, and the show was titled Who We are Portraying. The exhibit explored identity and how individuals represent or express themselves publicly.  

The other two exhibitions I participated in were in South Carolina. Both were 10th-anniversary shows. The first one was a salon exhibition celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the publication, The Jasper Project. The show and celebration were both held at 701 Whaley's Pool Hall space. Laura Garner Hine curated the exhibition. Other artists selected to participate in the show included Bohumila Augustinova, Eileen Blythe, Mike Dwyer, Michael Krajewski, Cait Maloney, and Lucas Sams, to name a few. 
 
The second exhibition 10th-anniversary exhibition I participated in this past spring was the ArtFields 10th-Anniversary competition exhibition. Located in Lake City, South Carolina, ArtFields is a nine-day festival that features up to 400 works of art at 40 venues in which on can view the artists selected to compete from the southeast region of the United States. Participating artists are juried each year by a prestigious panel of jurors. The 2022 ArtFields juror panel included:  Venessa Castagnoli, Executive Director of Ogden Contemporary Arts; Charles Eady, Contemporary Artist and Author; Jean McLaughlin, Arts Administrator, Educator, and Artist; David Reyes, Curator of Exhibitions and Collections, Huntsville Museum of Art; and Jaime Suárez, Sculptor, Architect, Educator, and Ceramicist.


This is a painting by artist Dawn Hunter and it features a young African American girl in yellow sunglasses and cat ears. She is in an Alice and Wonderland whimsical context surrounded by caterpillars with books on their heads and flowers with faces.

Top, detail of one of The Darcy Inventory drawings, mixed media on paper, 11" x 14."  The Darcy Inventory, center, installed at The R.O.B. at this year's 10th anniversary ArtFields competition, Lake City, SC. 

This is a photo of the Darcy Inventory installation at the 10th anniversary exhibition of ArtFields in Lake City, SC.



Summer Fun

Darcy won a weeklong spot in the Walk on the Wild Side World Explorers camp in Greenville this summer. Campers dissected owl pellets, learned about various estuary habitats, and met a tarantula, chinchilla, and python at the Greenville Zoo. When Darcy was not in camp, we spent our time either swimming in the hotel pool or exploring the downtown area of Greenville, South Carolina. 

Check out our South Carolina Sunshine Instagram reel of the week here!

This is a portrait of a young African American girl standing under the sign of the World Explores camp in Greenville, South Carolina.

Darcy, outside of World Explorers camp, Greenville, SC.



Art of Neuroscience, Netherlands Institute of Neuroscience


I received an Honorable Mention for my artwork Dueling Cajals in the prestigious international sci-art competition, Art of Neuroscience. This year's competition jurors were Dr. Bevil Conway, Dr. Flora Lysen, and Dr. Sabine Niederer.

 

Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience Statement: 


"This submission struck the jury because of its emphasis on the history of neuroscience. The work highlights how any scientific process, particularly scientific image-making, can be influenced by a multilayering of cultural and historical factors. The jury admired how diverse periods in time from this historical perspective were weaved into one image, and appreciated the effort that went into investigating the sources that Cajal was exposed to. Dueling Cajals serves as an important reminder for neuroscientists to recognize history and its influence on their work. " - AoN, NIN, NL


My drawing was created by referencing primary sources from Cajal's life and scientific research while serving as the Fulbright España Senior Research fellow at the Instituto Cajal. Below this paragraph is an Instagram reel. In the reel, I am giving the viewer a glimpse into the creative process and some of the items (Cajal's scientific regeneration drawing and the original mold of his death mask) that I researched in creating my drawing.

Dawn Hunter, Dueling Cajals, Art of Neuroscience Instagram reel.


This is an image of Dawn Hunter's drawing Dueling Cajals featured on the award announcement card for the winners of the Art of Neuroscience award.

My artwork above, Dueling Cajals, mixed media on paper, 11" x 14."



This is an image of Cajal regeneration neuron drawing on the left and an image of his death mask on the right. In front of the death mask are artist Dawn Hunter's drawing supplies and a sketch that she created of the mask.

The primary sources that I reference from the Instituto Cajal, Madrid, that inspire the Dueling Cajals drawing, left an original nerve regeneration scientific drawing completed by Cajal and the original death mask mold.




Cajal Club


It is with immense gratitude and a touch of modest pride that I share the news of my election to the esteemed Cajal Club Board of Directors. The trust they have placed in me to design and create a new website for their illustrious organization is both exhilarating and deeply humbling.

My life was full of hard work, collaboration, and feedback from and with top Neuroscientists during the transition from July to August. The new website is now operational. This is an ongoing endeavor; a garden that will continue to flourish and grow. More content is yet to come, so stay tuned!

The new website, designed by yours truly, can be found here: cajalclub.org.

This is one of the homepage slides of the Cajal Club website, designed by Dawn Hunter, and it features a travel photo of Cajal with some of this research assistants.


This is a webpage designed by artist Dawn Hunter for the international organization, the Cajal Club. It features an photo of renowned neuroscientist, Elizabeth C. Crosby.




Closing


We have had some wonderful adventures so far this year and we are looking forward to more! We feel honored and blessed by all of our opportunities.

Have a wonderful fall everyone and check back with us again soon! XOXO




This is a black and white portrait of artist Dawn Hunter.

Portrait of artist Dawn Hunter, taken by her daughter Darcy, July, 2022.