Hello everyone! It’s been a while, but I’m hoping everyone is having a great semester so far.
I was on my not-so-spring cleaning grind and stumbled across some older pieces I never got around to donating to SMArt, and thought that this would be a great opportunity to share.
You see, on another definitely-not-spring cleaning session, I came across loads of old science books. The kind that with the pretty illustrations and easy-to-understand science for kids, and I was reminded of how much I used to love them as a kid.
That’s when I got the idea to begin collaging. As much as I’d love to get the scissors out and get messy, I wanted to preserve the books as well, so I began scanning and collecting all sorts of illustrations. I was able to digitally combine and layer the images, no harm done to the books!
While it isn’t as involved as something like, painting an entirely new piece, collaging has been such a cool way to explore topics in science without having to do all the hard work of sketching new content.
In this piece we see vultures in front of comically large fungi, surrounding a bouquet of flowers ; a reminder of the life that comes from death and detritivores, as grim as it sounds. There’s a caterpillar and a moth, a clear depiction of the metamorphoses in the natural world. All of this is overlooked by the moon, a classic example of a cycle in nature. And if it wasn’t evident enough, a section of the dictionary clearly defines the title of the piece, ‘Cycle’.
This collage, although looking edgy and cool, was an exploration of the abstract topics biology seeks to explain. Compared to other sciences, the cycles and fluxes of ecology are outstanding and as abstract as the trade offs between life and death. I was reminded of this as I skimmed through my old science books, looking for patterns – and isn’t that what science and art are all about, after all?
We’d love to hear about any unreleased or unfinished SMArt pieces you guys have, and we look forward to growing this blog with you all.
Until next time,
- Dante