Final Thoughts

This class has inspired both me and my artwork so much and has rekindled my love for space. As a child I was always fascinated by the stars and space travel that I wanted to be an astronaut. It was amazing getting to go to JPL and see where dreams of space travel become realities. I found myself thinking of all the crazy art projects I have had and thought they would never be possible but then hearing how they have come up with their ideas for space travel and execute them, anything is possible. Hearing how they meet up and collaborate on ideas reminded me how as artist we go to each others with our ideas and problem solve.

I have never thought about the intersection of art and science until this class and have found so many connections and similarities. Looking at Leonardo da Vinci, he is the all time example of how art and science are similar and go hand in hand in a sense. Da Vinci experimented with human bodies to find how the body's muscular structure formed so that he could make his sculptures more realistic. He did that before any scientist did and his drawings were works of art.

When I work on projects I go through a series of trial and error, as do scientist when they are trying to discover or prove something new. The process of putting what is in your head to a physical form happens in both art and science. I feel that people think that art and science are complete opposites and would never put them in the same category due to the fact that people think science is all math and art is all creativity which yes there's a lot of that involved in them but they both have those elements in them.

For my final project I was very inspired by Janna Levin’s lectures about black holes. I wanted to develop my own perspective of the lecture and really thought about how I could document an image of a black hole. I decided to use darkroom paper to create a series of prints that zoom into a black hole. I experimented for a while with different foods (honey, vinegar, cinnamon...) and ink to see what they would do when mixed together. I found that cinnamon was the best option for creating stars and a flashlight would help me to create the black hole enlarging. I feel that this project really got me thinking of how art and science are a big part of each other. Most of my artworks include elements that if science have not created (developing chemicals for instance) I would not be able to produce, and vice versa.

I think that after this class I will think more about how science has played a role in my art work and the otherway around. This has even inspired me to go back to my passion for space and do a lot more astrophotography and light painting. Thank you Lia for teaching one of the most memorable classes I have taken here at Chapman!!!