Visiting Microbiology

Before the tutorial on Monday we went to see a PHD student Gavin Bingley in the Microbiology department to discuss whether we could grow our own moulds so that we could use our own images to draw from and get inspiration from.

This is an image of us in Gavin's room collecting our Agar plates.
We then took these and left them in different places for an hour so collect germs and bacteria, then we took them back to be incubated so as to grow mould we could work from ourselves.

I loved doing this. It was so interesting going to a department I hadn't been to before. It was so clinical and clean and white and we had to sterilise our hands and wear lab coats. I love that we have collaborated with a different department and have actually sought out the help we needed ourselves.

Drawings of mould inspired by photo

 From the starting point of that last image of the powdery blue mould, I started drawing the textures and shapes I liked out of it. I found the fluffy and soft aspect interesting, and also this sort of jelly bean shape. The colours were also fun to experiment with, I added a lot more green tones then I could see in the images because they lifted the image.

This image is interesting because I dropped a large quantity of ink onto the paper and then added water and from looking at the photos I have taken of moud the shape fits in really well.

 Here were my forst attempts at adding 3D into the drawings, actually creating a texture out of toilet roll which would also soak up colour amazingly.

This last image shows how I have treid to link the drawings back to my original ones using the spiral element which I feel adds a large part of the movement to the image.

First Mould Drawing From Images

First drawings of microscopic mould found from the internet. At this point we still didn't have our own photos so they had to do to just start making and drawing and getting some ideas of what we want to do next.

This image at the bottom inspired me the most because of the unusual texture, sort of fluffy. Also the colours were so disticnt. This powdery blue which faded into white. The 3D element was also really interesting, and something i would like st start looking at in more detail.

Easter

Been working on my own seperate project looking at mould and growth and natural shapes. I started by taking inspiration from photographs and creating by own drawings from them. These drawings, rather then represent an image of the mould subkect, discuss movement of growth and particular textures which inspire me. I also love the blue colour i managed to find, because when you start looking at nature, a lot of mould is that colour, you just hardly notice it. It doesn't look like it should be natural, but it is!

Willow Samples

After drawing for a while I realsied I really needed to start making! I had made some willow hearts over easter, and I loved thinking them as a way of describing the slow is beautiful idea because it is about entwining seperate lives together. It is a hand made process and is living if left in water it will still grow, but if out of water will dry and createa brown, hard, dead structure.

Lichen, living and growing mould

These images are my starting points of looking at the movemet and textures of lichen and other mould like organisms that are vital for life. I love the amount of different coulurs and textures which can be found in one thing.

These lichens have such similar shapes to mould cultures and show how so many living things in nature reflect this same shape of growing.

This looks like it could be an agar plate, however it is the lichen growing on a grave stone. It is interesting to see the connections between the two.

Beautiful texture I could reflect in drawing and making because it is so small but so detailed and full of beautiful light and shadows. Almost like an elaborate outfit with frills and lace!

Group Meeting

We'd arranged to meet on the Friday morning to talk about our plans over the easter break. Sadly only Steph, Claire, Jess Brown and myself were able to make it, but it has encouraged me to move my own ideas forward and get started on my own personal mini project. We also discussed about the mini project of going over to the science department and using their microscopes with cameras to recieve our own images or microscopic mould growth. This will be really exciting, and i feel for me will my push my own project on really well.