Brain texture

My own MRI's

 

 I dropped just a little in and then blew on it so it spread out and the colour stretched.

 I cut these sheets of marbelled ink out into shapes of the brain.

 Then I photocopied them onto acetate sheets with black behind them to create my own MRI scans.

Movement through out the brain

My tutor Kieran and I were discussing the movement through out the brain and he suggested I try a process he uses in ceramics, where I would get a block of clay and create paths of movement, holes and tunnels by sticking things through it and then cut this block into slices to show my paths of movement. I'm hoping to do this after the reviews and feedback when there's more free time.

 This made me think of X-rays and MRI scans and how they cut up the brain and body into slices and by looking through them you see the movement through the body itself.
I looked up cat scans, MRI's, X-rays and pet scans.








I liked the MRI scans and the thermo-scans, which conveyed the temperature in the brain. The colours were beautiful so I played with that idea. I marbelled ink for awhile.

What's on your mind?

I wanted to think of a metaphore for the brain, so my work would be a little less literal. So I brainstormed through the brain.. What's in the mind of a 19 year old girl, my memories, loves, fears, worries, pressures and reliefs. With this I mapped out what was on my mind. I liked the idea of the brain as a map or a labrynth, which brought me back to the idea of optical illusions and M.C Escher.

I came to the conclusion that I am an open book. My thoughts, worries, fears, hopes are on my sleeve. So for a few days I recorded all my thoughts in a little notebook. Every random word or ramble that came into my head. I got a book and covered the original words with masking tape, and obliterating all the original works by writing my recordings over it. 

  My tutors liked this idea, and suggested I move forward with this. I enjoyed it and I like the concept so I think I will try and continue with it by recording the movement in my brain, all my thoughts and ideas.

Self Portrait

We were given a project by our photography tutor to take a self portrait. My housemates and I rented a camera from the college and went out on the front balcony to try take some photos. I was lying down really low trying to photograph my housemate jumping in the air with her guitar and my panda was looking great so I got my friend to take a picture of me like that.

 The picture won't rotate for me, so turn your laptop sideways. I went to the electrical store near my college and I bought a really long extension cord. I peeled back the plastic, assuming I would find a few coloured wires underneath, but over the coloured wires was a silver cover that worked really well with my idea.
 I created the shape of the brain with a think garden wire. To represent the activity and movement in the brain I put a bundle of the coloured wires inside. I let some fall out and twisted and curled the ends to convey the path of movement that comes from the brain. All the activity and motion in the brain controls the rest of our body.

I felt there was a sense of chaos from the wires that are leaving the brain, this represents the movement of the messages in the brain by electo-chemical conduction.

Happy Halloween :)

self portrait-optical illusions

I hadn't painted since my portfolio course so I thought I'd try get back into it. I'd been so used to painting with gouache and I really like the smooth finish of gouache paints and how easy they are to blend. You really only need the three primary colours. Unfortunately I had forgotten my gouache paints and only had acrylics with me. Also gouache doesn't work nicely on canvas, it's a very light paint and it seeps through the weave of the canvas.
 So it took a little while to get used to the acrylics and to mix the right colours. I was pretty happy with the result.

The optical illusion of this painting creates movement in your brain when there isn't actually any physical movement present.