The Science in the Art

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artscience

It has been a while since last time I wrote in my blog. It has been a great journey so far this semester teaching Inquiry at Quinnipiac University, the academic advising experiment, the sculpting and painting parties, the workshops and talks on Business Needs Assessment with an Inquiry Approach, the show that just ended at Spectrum Gallery, the sculpting demo I had there back in March, the sculpting workshop at Columbus School through ARTE Inc., the computer classes at the now Literacy Volunteers of Southern Connecticut, and a new partnership unfolding that gets me closer to understand my mission and the reason I do what I do… Well, that was a long sentence… Things are wrapping up as we are about a month away to finish the semester. The summer (if we get one this year in New England) is already promising good things. I think that brings us up-to-date in everything that is happening.

The Science in the Art

My students were working in groups to get feedback from each other as they prepared for their oral presentations. This is one way research in peer tutoring learning environments supports practice and practice supports research. In the process, one student was trying to find a connection between health sciences, specifically medicine, and art. To serve as an example that helped make the connection clear and concrete we have the Frank H. Netter M.D. School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University. Frank H. Netter M.D. was a surgeon and world’s most prolific medical illustrator. He helped medicine understand the human body with his illustrations. Interestingly, when people study medicine they call it medical arts. Not finding the connection yet? Let me help you understand. All the knowledge in science, or in any field, is incomplete without the capacity to think creatively to solve specific issues or to accurately come up with a diagnosis.

10897129_10150521204179956_2246822379688977574_n-2Creativity is the use of imagination of creative ideas. To transform that idea into a visual interpretation is just part of the “art” in anything. This might not be a strong argument for some but that is something to discuss with a guy who was smarter than me and many of us: Albert Einstein. He understood that “the true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination”. He also said that “to raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science”, and “logic will take you from A to B. Imagination will take you anywhere”. The art in science is often hard to connect if we don’t think beyond our day-to-day thinking. Equally hard is to understand the science in the art.

IMG_5613.JPGOne question I get a lot is: “How do your wife feels with you drawing and sculpting only women?”. No one asks how do I feel about my wife doing physical exams to random people. She is a physician and a very good one. The best I know. We see the human body in similar ways in the connection between art and science, as well as science and art. Understanding how the body interacts with itself and the environment, and how to represent these interactions visually through drawing of sculpting is both an art and a science. The curiosity that brings research to life and engages the scientific mind in seeking understanding is no different from the curiosity that pushes the figure artist to understand the human body.

Gravity

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I get compliments on my art when it shows the effects of gravity on the female body. The term I see the most in the comments is “real women”. These compliments come generally from females. I believe it is simple physics and the fact that there are so many body types. Where there is mass there will be the effect of gravity. I honestly don’t like when things that should fall are trying to levitate against nature. I consider natural as more beautiful. This is accepted by many women in theory but for some reason when it comes to judge themselves, this reality is no longer accepted. Why is that? I wish I had an answer.

IMG_5181.JPGAround 85% of my followers in social media and about 95% of the participants of the sculpting and painting parties are females. From people who acquired my art so far is a very similar statistic. When he buys a piece of art from me is for her. You can see my gravitation towards the female figure in my art and I think that is a connection most women perceive, but it is not only with my art. Back in college it was me and a lot of girls in almost every class. They could talk about anything shamelessly and even involve me in the conversations. That still happens today. Teaching or taking a class I am generally the only male. Recently, my wife took me to a gathering that looked like a girls’ night out. Allegedly, other guys were invited but I was the only one there.

IMG_5198.JPGI was a manager on a OB-GYN office therefore no female conversation is scary to me. Nevertheless, I keep trying to convince myself that it is not weird at all and that I am used to it. Honestly, it feels like some kind of calling I can’t still fathom. We all, not only women, need to understand that we are all different for a reason, that nature and natural is a beautiful thing. If you are 40 and you don’t feel or look 20, there is a very simple explanation for that: You are not 20. We age, we change, and gravity affects us all. A ‘perfect body’ is ephemeral fantasy and trying to ‘fix it’ doesn’t make It more beautiful. Moreover, no matter how much we try to fix it we will never be satisfied, because the problem is not on the outside but in the inside.

Those Drawings

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I’ve been drawing the last few days a little more. Drawing always takes me back to the college years when I walked around with my sketchbook just like Jack Dawson, the character played by Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic. Those drawings also looked very similar. Drawing was a daily activity at any given chance. I don’t think I developed a classical drawing technique but I always had fun.

It is always interesting to see people’s reactions. The reaction to those drawings is still the same today after 20 years. I wish I knew back then about attribution theory, although I think I asked the right questions to their curious and judgmental questions about the nude figure. People ask why are the drawings nude and why I don’t draw clothes on them. My answer is that I’m a figure artist and not a fashion designer. I wonder if people ask OB-GYN physicians to change their specialty to something less intrusive.

People assume that because the drawing is a nude figure it is something impure, dirty, or sexual. This is not surprising in a society that measures the value of a human being based on their sexuality and not in the intrinsic value as a person. The figure is just visually interesting. The human body is a beautiful thing. No, I don’t see people naked when I walk around. I don’t have x-ray vision. I guess, and attribution theory comes to play again, that people see the way they see because of who they are. People will produce and interpret things based on their condition. However, the intentions of the heart are exposed to One and I am not the One to judge or justify.

Painting With No Meaning

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Blue Roses

Blue Roses

“What does it mean?” That is probably one of the top ten questions people ask when they look at a painting. Certainly not all paintings must have ‘a meaning’. Some paintings are to be felt, others are interpretations of nature, and others are just a way for the artist to deliver a technique for personal amusement and practice. Painting with no meaning is very satisfying indeed.  All you want to do is to enjoy the process. If someone else finds meaning to it and likes it is a plus.

In my last studio days of 2014 I did just that: painting to explore a technique and have fun. I am a sculptor and prefer sculpting much more than painting. However, I enjoy painting from time to time. I approach painting the way I approach sculpting. I begin with the pose. I work on basic shapes and then work smaller areas until I ‘build’ the figure. I am not looking for meaning or some intellectual and spiritual awakening. I just study the figure. I try to understand the intricacies of the muscles and their reaction to movement. It is delightful to observe how muscles expand, stretch, and contract. You can feel it in your own body.

blue roses process

The process begins by tracing that pose I want to explore. I trace just the lines with paint. I love lines. I apply some shading as a guide. ‘Filling’ the figure with color helps provides a foundation on which I will shade and form the muscles. For me is very important to follow the fiber of the muscle with my brushstrokes. It provides a sense of volume. It also helps to accurately shape the anatomy. Before I work on the details of the anatomy I try to surround the figure with color as in providing a setting (which is generally empty space for me but it provides visual sense). The surrounding colors also help me decide the colors for shading the figure.

selfie with blue rosesDetailing the muscles is very challenging but so much fun. I work one small area at a time and connect the muscles until the figure is complete. Hair comes after. To add a little something to the composition I added flowers this time. I was going in different directions with the flowers once I added the blue roses (which were originally purple) close to the head. First, and that was the original idea, I wanted to create a ‘u’ shaped frame of flowers and vines on the bottom half of the canvas. It was too much for me. The next idea was to just add a few flowers closing the figure at the bottom. I was not feeling it either, so I left it like that with just three blue roses. The rest is about cleaning up the details. After about 12 hours I was very satisfied with the result.

Torsos

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Since my first solo exhibit in 2010 I look forward to this time of the year. Saturday, November 22 is the opening reception for my show TORSOS at the Gallery at Elemar (2 Gibbs St. New Haven, CT) from 6-9pm. You are invited!

Torsos

As I prepared for this show I read about women psychology.  I am not sure how to feel about the research and statistics in this subject. A little scary I confess. According to studies “80% of women in the U.S. are dissatisfied with their appearance”. This affects their confidence, relationships, and the generations to follow.

I’ve been blessed (for lack of a better explanation) with “I don’t know what” for women to open up to me in their dissatisfaction with themselves and speak to me as if they were talking to another female friend or a dad, or a psychologist. One thing always comes to the conversation is how they dislike different body parts of their whole appearance. They look at my work and try to compare themselves generally in derogatory ways. I believe we are all a work of art and the human body is a book where different stories have been written, each one different, and all beautiful.