Sunday, April 12, 2015

At the NIH...drawing Cajal's drawings!

It is remarkably humbling to study, by drawing, another artist's work.  It is said that to understand a work of art, one must see that work of art in person.  I agree, and I would take that sentiment a step further and add that to truly understand some works, one must draw them.

In my current body of artwork, I have committed myself to studying and researching the life and scientific work of Santiago Ramón y Cajal.  Recently, I have had the opportunity to view some of his drawings that are currently on display at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD.  The exhibit, curated by NINDS Senior Investigator, Jeffery Diamond, Ph. D., features six samples of Cajal's original drawings, on loan from El Instituto Cajal.

I have had the opportunity to visit the works twice, and during each visit, I spent several hours drawing his drawings.  Seeing Cajal's original drawings in person is extraordinary.  The works are much, much more than anatomical recordings.  The line quality of his work is descriptively delicate:  refined, sensitive and elegant, like other great masters - Dürer, Rembrandt, Goya, etc.  Half of the works on display were created in a straight forward manner with ink.  By that I mean, it is evident he did not draw those particular works out in pencil prior to adding the ink.  His level of skill and mastery allowed him to draw and develop an entire concept or observation with ink.  This means, there was no erasing.  What careful, thoughtful and remarkable precision in his recordings of the contours and qualities of the neurons.

The exhibit at the NIH has taken my understanding of Cajal to a new level.  Below, I am posting some photos of the exhibition on display at the NIH and my studies of Cajal's drawings.

When viewing my studies of Cajal's work below, bear in mind, I approached them in the same manner as Cajal:  with ink and no erasing.  My work in comparison to Cajal's, however, is flawed with some proportion, linear and scale issues.  While they may not be a prefect mirror of the master's work, I have learned a great deal from the process of creating them.

I feel so fortunate and I am thankful to all of the efforts put forth by Dr. Diamond and the El Instituto of Cajal in bringing these highly important drawings to the United States.  I look forward to studying these works more in the future.



The display panel and exhibition of Cajal's work currently on view at the NIH.



My drawing study of Cajal's hippocampus drawing.



The display panel and exhibition of Cajal's work currently on view at the NIH.



My drawing study of Cajal's drawing of the cerebellum.



The display panel and exhibition of Cajal's work currently on view at the NIH.



My drawing study of Cajal's drawing illustrating and comparing his theory with Golgi's.  This study of mine is the least complete.  For his illustration comparing his theory to Golgi's, Cajal first drew it in pencil.  I decided to stop my study/drawing about midway.  Next time I draw this work, I am going to sketch it out first in pencil - like Cajal.


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I have posted the below writing by John Berger on this blog before, and I am posting it again today, as I feel it really relates to what Cajal did and what I am attempting to understand in his work.


Inspiration from “A Painter of Our Time,” By John Berger


June 26

It is the most profound activity of all, this one of drawing.  And the most demanding.  It is when I draw that I regret the weeks, the years perhaps, that I have wasted.  If, as in the fairy stories, I could grant a gift to a child who was to become a painter, it would be a long life, so that he might master this activity of drawing.  What so few people realize is that the painter, unlike the writer or the architect or the designer, is both creator and executant of his art.  He needs two lives.  And, above all, to master drawing.  Nearly every artist can draw when he has made a discovery.  But to draw in order to discover – that is the godlike process, that is to find effect and cause.  The power of colour is nothing compared to the power of the line; the line that does not exist in nature but which can expose and demonstrate the tangible more sharply than can sight itself when confronted with the actual object. To draw is to know by hand – to have the proof that Thomas demanded.  Out of the artist’s world is solid, material. But the proof is never familiar.  Every great drawing – even if it is of a hand or the back of a torso, forms perceived thousands of times before – is like the map of a newly discovered island.  Only it is far easier to read a drawing than a map; in front of a drawing it is the five senses that make a surveyor.

All great drawing is drawing by memory.  That is why it takes so long to learn.  If drawing were transcription, a kind of script writing, it could be taught in a few years.  Even before a model, you draw from memory.  The model is a reminder. Not of a stereotype that you know by heart.  Not even of anything you can consciously remember.  The model is a reminder of experiences you can only formulate and therefore only remember by drawing.  And those experiences add up to the sum total of your awareness of the tangible, three-dimensional, structural world.  A blank page of a sketch-book is a blank, white page.  Make one mark on it, and the edges of the pages are no longer simply where the paper was cut, they have become the borders of a microcosm.  Make two marks on it of uneven pressure and the whiteness ceases to be whiteness and becomes opaque three-dimensional space that must be made less opaque and more and more lucid by every succeeding mark.  That microcosm is filled with the potentiality of every proportion you have ever perceived or sensed.  That space is filled with the potentiality of every form, sliding plane, hollow, point of contact, passage of separation you have ever set eye or hand on.  And it does not stop there.  For, after a few more marks, there is air, there is pressure and therefore there is bulk and weight.  And this scale is then filled with the potentiality of every degree of hardness, yieldingness, force of movement, activeness and passiveness that you have ever buried your head in or knocked it against.  And from all this you must select in a few minutes, as nature did through millennia, in order to create a human ankle, a human arm-pit with the pectoral muscle burying itself like an underground stream, or the bough of a tree.  From all this you must select the one lock and one key.  I think I would grant three lives not two.


Sunday, March 15, 2015

A Work in Progress:

This post contains images from one of my current studio projects in which I am creating artwork inspired by the life and scientific research of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, who is considered by many to be the father of modern neuroscience.  Featured in this post are a magazine article written about the project, photos from a recent exhibition at the University of West Georgia, my long term completed works, and some of my short term, less finished studies.  Many of these works have appeared previously on this blog sometime during the last year and a half, beginning in October of 2013.  The intent of this post is to create a concessive overview of the project's progress.


Jasper Magazine Article featuring my artwork inspired by the life of Santiago Ramón y Cajal.
Below is the link to the online copy of the Jasper Magazine article "The Artist and the Scientist," pp. 50-52.  Use you right arrow on your keyboard to view the pages in the online publication.  




Man as Sunflower, acrylic and graphite on paper, 14" x 17," 2014 



May Day:  Cajal in Spring, acrylic on Yupo paper, 26" x 40,"  2014

detail May Day:  Cajal in Spring

detail May Day:  Cajal in Spring (here with a falcon)

detail May Day:  Cajal in Spring

detail May Day:  Cajal in Spring (here with a camera)

detail May Day:  Cajal in Spring

detail May Day:  Cajal in Spring




Exhibition at University of West Georgia, Fall 2014

Exhibition at University of West Georgia, Fall 2014

Exhibition at University of West Georgia, Fall 2014



Nuclei Nest, graphite, acrylic and ink on paper, 18" x 24," 2014

detail of Nuclei Nest

detail of Nuclei Nest

detail of Nuclei Nest

detail of Nuclei Nest




Studio shot of four works based on the Inspiring Branches drawing (third from the right.)



“Nothing inspires more reverence and awe in me than an old man who knows how to change his mind.”
 -Santiago Ramón y Cajal

Man, Sunflower, and Nuclei Nests, graphite, acrylic and ink on paper, 18" x 24," 2014

detail of Man, Sunflower, and Nuclei Nests,

detail of Man, Sunflower, and Nuclei Nests




Inspiring Branches, graphite and ink on paper, 18" x 24," 2014




"I completed my latest work which features fledgling Cardinal.  I was stunned a couple of weeks ago when I spotted one.  Unexpected to me was the neutral and somewhat cool red-violet hue of the tiny bird, because adult Cardinals are red-orange and red-brown in hue.  I was struck and in awe, and felt the sweet tiny creature would fit nicely into my latest work." -Dawn Hunter, August 1, 2014.  

Fledgling, acrylic, ink and graphite on Yupo, 18" x 24"

detail of Fledgling

detail of Fledgling



Below are images from a sketchbook that I created for the project.  The drawings have become significantly developed, and now the sketchbook had evolved into a comprehensive "book arts" project.  All of the images are graphite, acrylic, and ink on paper.  Referencing Cajal's biography, the images create a symbolic visual narrative of his life through referencing his neuroscience drawings, romanticism, and surrealism.

Beginning of the in progress "book arts" images:











End of the in progress "book arts" images



Conceptualizing neurons and nuclei in an unconventional portrait.

Man as Sunflower, Sunflower as Nuclei, acrylic and ink on paper, 11" x 14"

detail, Man as Sunflower, Sunflower as Nuclei

detail, Man as Sunflower, Sunflower as Nuclei

detail, Man as Sunflower, Sunflower as Nuclei




Portrait with tree branches and roots, acrylic, graphite and ink on paper, 14" x 17," 2-14


"The brain is a world consisting of a number of unexplored continents and great stretches of unknown territory."

- Santiago Ramón y Cajal




New painting study, acrylic and ink, 18" x 24"

Landscape study for the sake of neurons #1, marker on paper 9" x 12"

Study of sunflower #2, graphite an ink on paper, 14" x 17," 2014

Study of sunflower #1, ink on paper, 14" x 17," 2014

Aquarium study for the sake of neurons #2, marker on paper, 9" x 12," 2014

Aquarium study for the sake of neurons #1, marker on paper, 9" x 12," 2014



". . . Faith vigorously promotes longevity, while doubt can doom us to an early death."

"Blessed are those who give their lives to a great idea, for they will endure in and for it! . ."

Both quotes by Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Café Chats (translated by Benjamin Ehrlich)





Surrealism, Spanish birds, Romanticism and the great outdoors: Summer time is cake,
graphite on paper, 14" x 17," 2014




Sketchbook page, May Day Birthday #3, marker, 
 and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Sketchbook page, May Day Birthday #1, marker, 
 and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Sketchbook page, May Day Birthday #2, marker, 
 and pen on paper, 9" x 12"



The world’s favorite season is the spring.
All things seem possible in May.

-  Edwin Way Teale




Below:  An intersection of experience and memory...The cockroaches of the stray and hay that frightened him while incarcerated as a youth during the 19th century, informed his scientific research as a man.

Forthcoming project study #10, ink on paper, 5.5" x 13," 2013

Forthcoming project study #9, ink on paper, 5.5" x 13," 2013

Forthcoming project study #8, ink on paper, 5.5" x 13," 2013


Sketchbook Drawing of an Over the Top May Day Birth Announcement:


Forthcoming project study #7, pencil and ink on board, 10" x 11," 2013

Forthcoming project study #5, pencil and ink on board, 9" x 12," 2013


Below: trying to visualize what a 19th century boy would draw in the margins of his latin book while distracted:

Forthcoming project study #6, digital study, 2013

Forthcoming project study #4, ink on board, 9" x 12," 2013

May's exquisite fragrance
of lilacs in my room;
Has brought me joy and
 
pleasure and kept my
heart in tune.

The lilies-of-the-valley
strike up their notes of cheer.
For Mother's Day and May Day
are at this time of year.
 

Florence Weaver


Forthcoming project study #3, ink on board, 9" x 12," 2013

Forthcoming project study #2, ink on board, 9" x 12," 2013

Forthcoming project study #1, ink on board, 9" x 12," 2013