Visualizing the Biological » Imagery

Fimbriae painting

admin — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 22:03:30 +0000

I finished a fallopian tube fimbriae painting. This one began as a typical anatomical study, but I let composition and such get the better of me, so that it became more abstract and less purely anatomical than others. In the medical illustration world, it would be more of an editorial piece than anything. Far too much fun to do!

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Heart painting

mreinke — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:12:26 +0000

Recently finished is a small study of the internal heart wall – specifically the trabeculae carneae formations that run rampid in both ventricles. Their function? Opinions seem to vary, but they probably aid in contraction and the prevention of too much suction, besides offering a lovely visual surprise when you first dissect a real heart.

For anyone interested in other unique views of the heart, a priceless collection of videos is available via a University of Minnesota project: http://www.vhlab.umn.edu/atlas/index.shtml Not only can you look at internal structures from a myriad of angles, but you can also choose from a range of different hearts, which really underscores how common variations in structrues can be.

Available for purchase on etsy.

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Editorial

mreinke — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:13:26 +0000

Below is an editorial project for a selected journal cover – the article this image relates to was about Still’s heart murmer, fairly common in school age children. It’s a fascinating benign murmer that was likened to the sound of an Aeolian harp – this if this harmless murmer is heard in children, they can be told they have a musical heart. This author’s theory was that the blood flowing through the chordae tendinae of the right ventricle produced the characteristic pitch and humming sound.

And for all you curious ones out there, here’s an actual recording of one:http://www2.umdnj.edu/~shindler/still.html

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Aria Painting

mreinke — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:16:51 +0000

This has been done for awhile, but I’ve only recently scanned it and comped it together in Photoshop. Occasionally I feel like breaking away from the whole medical subject area, or anything representational. I’m really interested in relationships between music and visual arts and love the concept of Kandinsky’s art and the series of nocturnes by Whistler. This painting ranks among my favorites: Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket. There are more and less successful ways to do abstract paintings, and Whistler nails it in this one.

Moving on, below is a painting I’m calling “Aria”. Fun with colors, composition, shapes, and movement!

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New look, new philosophy

mreinke — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 02:56:34 +0000

The summer semester is over, and we’re digging into the fall. I’m changing the focus of this blog – instead of covering news and other inspirational biologically related art, the posts will primarily be portfolio and personal artwork updates — after all, the career I’m diving into is about making art, not writing and reporting about it.

Nevertheles, I love looking into what other artists and designers are doing – constantly feeding yourself imagery helps a lot in fueling your own creative tank- , and through my Twitter account (michelle_reinke) I’ll be sharing all the noteworthy artists, work, and scientific news I come across. Feel free to add me!

Below is the latest portfolio update – a work from this summer on cerebrospinal fluid and it’s associated anatomy and histology. Shown is the brain, ventricles, cisterns and areas of flow around the brain, and closeups of choroid plexus and arachnoid granulations.

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Inspirational Image Friday: Hunter Stabler

mreinke — Fri, 29 May 2009 12:15:38 +0000

Below are selected works – the more anatomically and biologically related ones of course – by Hunter Stabler. He creates detailed paper cutouts, occasionally dipping into other mediums. But this puts it mildly — as one exhibition described his work:

“His work … is intricate, mostly abstract paper cutouts of varying size, along with one painting. The cutouts’ detail is astounding. Stabler hand-draws them with a compass and cuts them out with an Exacto knife. Each piece takes between two and six months to produce.”

The content is sometimes abstract, sometimes recognizable, and often both. There’s a pervasive use of symbols, often religious in nature. An interesting element is that even though his compositions look highly radial/symmetrical, on close inspection in some (see details below), the symmetry doesn’t quite hold up. It’s interesting because it still works for Stabler, charging the cutouts with a subtle sense movement and the organic, and this observation certainly doesn’t take away from the relentless detail in the forms themselves.

Now I’ll let the images speak for themselves:

Baba Yaga Misquotes The Face To Steeleye Span, hand-cut paper, Hunter Stabler

Hare Christmas Maharishi, India ink and graphite on paper, Hunter Stabler

Saint Vitus Architeuthis Manalishi With The Seven Tentacle Crown, ink and graphite on hand-cut paper, Hunter Stabler

detail of Saint Vitus Architeuthis Manalishi With The Seven Tentacle Crown, ink and graphite on hand-cut paper, Hunter Stabler

Sonic Pretzel Mastodon, ink and graphite on hand-cut paper, Hunter Stabler

The Cockatoo Is Moving Under You, ink and graphite on hand-cut paper, Hunter Stabler

Etcetera: Art of Science winners, Wounded in Action

mreinke — Sun, 24 May 2009 00:35:10 +0000

The Art of Science has recently picked its 2009 winners. The concept behind this year’s contest, the 3rd of its kind, is found art — none of the chosen pieces were labored over or planned out, they were simply unexpectedly and suddenly seen through a microscope, computer screen, or what have you.

I’m not a fan with all the images chosen, but when you view them one by one, there are quite a few that hold there own. See “Cement Flower” and “Metadherin Expression at 10.5 Days Post Conception” and “Semiconducting Feathers”. The whole concept reminds me of Michael Kimmelman’s “The Accidental Masterpiece” — unexpected art buried found buried in chests, garages, attics, dollar stores.

There’s an opportunity for veterans, orthopoedic surgeons, or any artist affected by war: Wounded In Action Art . Submissions are being accepted from May 15 to October 15, in a variety of media. The juried exhibition will be in March 2010 and aims to honor and pay tribute to those who have suffered from orthopoedic injuries, the research that is furthering surgery techniques, and the surgeons behind the operations.

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Inspirational Image Friday: Extreme Mammals at AMNH

mreinke — Sat, 23 May 2009 01:22:22 +0000

On exhibition now through January at the American Museum of Natural History is fantastic sounding exhibit: EXTREME MAMMALS ! Looks like the webdesigners had some fun putting the exhibit site together — there’s no holding back on the sensationalism of the crazy creatures on view.

As the museum itself claims:

“Featuring spectacular fossils and other specimens from the Museum’s collections, vivid reconstructions, and live animals, the exhibition examines the ancestry and evolution of numerous species, ranging from huge to tiny, from speedy to sloth-like, and displays animals with oversized claws, fangs, snouts, and horns.”

It also boasts multimedia use, hands on displays, and live sugar gliders. AND, there’s even mention of the science tabloids latest headlines, Darwinius masillae, or Ida: definitely not a missing link but still a wonderfully preserved primitive mammal specimin.

Check out the Chinese pangolin echidna below.

Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla), © AMNH/D. Finnin

More images, discussions, reviews, etc. below:

Exhibition Site

Born Animal Discovery News blog

New York Times review

Wired article

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Inspirational Image Friday: multimedia presentation by Frans Lanting

mreinke — Sat, 16 May 2009 03:41:54 +0000

Anyone’s work that involves “visualizing the story of life” has me hooked. Below is the Ted Talk presentation/ slideshow of Frans Lanting: “A Journey Through Time.” This multimedia work that premiered in 2006 involves great photography, dialogue/poetry, and music by Philip Glass, and aims to tell the story of life. It starts from the ancient alien-like world of earth and moves forward, successfully conveying the beauty of evolution and humanity’s place in it.

Unlike other largely inspirational visual & scientific works, this one succeeds in being nearly as informative as it is beautiful. Useful facts are cited throughout the journey, and there’s a great visualization tool of the photographs and their context in evolution on the www.lifethroughtime.com website.

Other Resources:

Frans Lanting Photography

LIFE: A Journey Through Time – this includes a preview of the slideshow, and a unique interactive viewing method of the photographs in situ with their place in evolution.

Wikipedia bio

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Updated Portfolio

mreinke — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:33:06 +0000

As per the end of the semester tradition, the online portfolio is now updated!

Here’s the preview — links to portfolio from these images:

Dynamics of Porcine Intestine

Ventricular System - coronal view

Ventricular System - lateral view

Ligation of Ovarian Vessels during Porcine Ovariohysterectomy

Cesarean Section

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Inspirational Image Friday: Irises

mreinke — Fri, 08 May 2009 12:24:55 +0000

update: looks like the photographer behind this work is the UK photographer Rankin. There’s some great photography to peruse on the site. Keep scrolling over in the “special projects” section to find the irises.

Also note this larger collection of his irises, here. Again, scroll over to see them all.

——-

There’s a fabulous gallery of closeups of irises at the Chive. All the images are believed to be public domain, but unfortunately, there’s no other information going along with them — some are clearly pathologic, and I’m curious what the cause is (guesses, anyone?).

In any case, the images give a closer view of an already alluring body structure and reveal the delicacy of its form.

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AlloSphere visualization

mreinke — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 01:49:03 +0000

There’s a Ted talk that describes the UC Santa Barbara based AlloSphere, an impressively immersive space for viewing scientific data. This 3 story sphere can hold about 20 researchers, all standing on a bridge running through the middle of this structure. It is connected to a super computer, and projects many data types, including visual sound mapping.

As one commentor put, X-men?

Some nice pieces of imagery are shown, but I’m curious what exactly they’re showing (and not showing) in the brain project. The cortex is displayed as an abstract cavernous space, but nature abhors a vacuum. The video said it was based on fMRI data, but is the positive space showing specific cell types, water density, etc? Or is it largely sound mapping? Maybe we’re getting a bat’s eye view of these structures.

Here’s a follow up interview from this speedy presentation: http://blog.ted.com/2009/04/allosphere_interview.php

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Inspirational Image Friday: Earth as Art

mreinke — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:05:50 +0000

In honor of earth day, this week’s imagery comes from a collection of great abstract satellite composite photos of the earth’s surface – specifically from the Landsat 7 satellite and by the USGS National Center for EROS, all done for the public. The Earth As Art site’s a little rough in design but yields some surprising content often more reminiscent of color studies than recognizable landscape forms. Here’s a sample of what’s there:

Vatnajökull Glacier Ice Cap Image taken 8/4/1999 by Landsat 7

Volcanoes Image taken 2/1/2002 by ASTER

Niger River, Massina Mali Image taken 2/8/2003 by ASTER

[Image courtesy of USGS National Center for EROS and NASA Landsat Project Science Office]

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Posting artwork online – feedback wanted

mreinke — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 23:43:00 +0000

A recent online discussion about the current music industry and file sharing at MusicianWages.com , made me want to investigate the same for the visual arts community, particularly about styles of posting (or not) original artwork online. I believe the crux is of the issue in the visual arts is figuring out how to get your work out there without risking it being taken advantage of, and ultimately money and your intellectual property being lost.

Ways to keep your work safer that I’m aware of are to

include copyright information on website and/or individual images
embed images with metadata
use watermarks
display smaller/lower res images
embed the images in the html so clicking and dragging them off doesn’t work
add a viewer that only allows zoomed in views of small portions of the work

With some of these being much more subtle than others, it seems like there’s a catch-22: Either you can keep your work safe but only display low res watermarked images, or display high res larger images that speak better of your talent but are more liable to be stolen.

Personally, I often wonder if our society worries far too much about intellectual property rights – there’s something to be said for the taking of old ideas and changing, evolving, and ultimately improving the original (i.e. fairy tales, Chinese scrolls, various musical arrangements.) So while getting paid for doing illustrations is important, I think some risk is worth the potential awareness/publicity that posting decent res artwork online can yield. I include metadata, copyright information, and post only moderately sized images. Most of the other options just cut down on user-friendliness, complicate the interface, scar the artwork, or place an inherent distrust in the viewer.

So now the invitation for comments:

How do you post your work online – and why? Any thoughts about how trends will change as technology continues to push in the direction of allowing everything to be viewable at anytime, anywhere?

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Etcetera: technology, jewelry

mreinke — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:26:08 +0000

Human Atlas: Of interest is a new iPod app – Human Atlas by Blausen Medical. Just as described it offers viewing of a variety of systems of the human body, in a range of depths, and from the images online, it certainly looks well rendered. There’s also an atlas for viewing online (who would really want to study from a tiny iPod screen?) that you can register to get access to.

Nervous System: On a slightly less scholarly note, there’s some great jewelry online being developed by MIT students with backgrounds in mathematics, biology, and architecture. Their work mimics naturalistic iterative processes (the end results named Dendrite, Radiolaria, Coral Series, and the like), and there’s an invitation for user interaction:

“We create our designs through an iterative and expermental process. After brainstorming an initial concept we write a pattern generating algorithm in the computer through which we further explore our ideas and ultimately create the finished product. You can use the applets we share here to create your own one of a kind jewelry designs or just to play and learn.”

The result is playful and unique jewelry reminicscent of the biological.

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