Idea No. 40 Anatomy

Bird discusses anatomy as it relates to changes in art as the study of the human body in order to produce  convincing depictions of the human figure. He also specifically discusses art that shows literally what lies beneath the skin. Da Vinci made it a practice to spend time dissecting bodies in order to better understand anatomy and thus more accurately represent figures. Eventually following the lead of artists like Da Vinci the study of anatomy became part of academic art education.

As you will notice if you look back at my 50 Ideas List, I am very interested in science, specifically biology. Several of my ideas relate to science and the body, though not as literally as Bird describes. As I have mentioned, I spent several years working in a hospital. One of my duties involved spending time in OR rooms while surgeries were taking place. Where as this would be very disturbing to many people I was really intrigued by it. As Da Vinci suggested I loved being able to see what was inside. I think that the overlap between the human body and medical science is very interesting. My dad is a neurologist and I had an idea that involved using EEG (brain wave mapping) paper as a layer in my artwork. I think pen and watercolor on top of it could be really neat. There is some interesting research in how certain activities yoga, meditation, and art production change a person's brain waves. Art is the only activity that makes adult's brain waves exactly mimic the brain waves of a child at play. Meditation   produces a greater number of alpha waves (happy, relaxation waves).  However, they don't use actual paper anymore for EEGs, and I so far I haven't tracked any down. This could still be a really interesting area to explore.

While at the hospital, I also worked on the neo-natal intensive care floor and this further developed my interest in babies, pregnancy and birth. I think a series on pregnancy or giving birth might be interesting. Check out these super cool in-utero animal pictures from National Geographic. They're really beautiful. I think the pink glow and the veins and the lines are incredible.

Overall, though I was just doing it to make money, my experience at the hospital developed a lot more compassion with in me. This is something I hope to be able to instill in my students.