I was at a bit of a creative impasse at the start of the year. I couldn't think of any subjects that I wanted to address creativity. My normal go to topics of birds and mushrooms were providing no inspiration. I attribute my artistic block to the season; the cold, short days of January. I spent an evening reflecting on this inevitable and natural occurrence, trying to divorce reason and self from the reality of winter. I ended up, quite spontaneously with the first picture below.
Migration Trigger
As I was transferring the image from my iPad to desktop, I miss-typed the word "migration". Spell check changed the title to "Irrational Trigger" which works too.
I really liked the way the picture turned out and enjoyed personifying a somewhat abstract natural phenomena. So I decided to keep to the style and process and apply it to other ideas.
Endoplasmic Reticulum, Smooth and Rough
I love diagrams in biology textbooks; all the little blobs, arrows, squiggly lines and alphanumeric notations. Many of them have an almost sigil-like quality to them, as if they are alchemical instructions from some lost occult grimore instead of renderings of cell functions and the like in a biology textbook.
The figures are very acrobatic, inspired equally by my daughter's aerial arts performances as they are by the complex set of steps and interactions involved in any biological process.
Light Pillar
One of the highlights of January is the increased chance of sun pillars, sun dogs and the such caused by ice crystals floating in the atmosphere.
I highly recommend the
Atmospheric Optics page for in depth explanations of these sorts of phenomena.
I plan to continue with more artwork in this vein. These three images are available in various formats at the
Distracted Naturalist Redbubble site. So you could buy a print and hang it up in your lab, or get a sticker and put in on your bass guitar case. Even a small card placed on a meditation altar could be cool. . .
