Some documentation from this semester…
Tag: illustration
January + February Inspiration
Note: Sometimes the things I include in these posts directly influence something I’m working on; other times I include things that just inspire and motivate me to continue making work.
1. Flower parade featuring floats inspired by Vincent van Gogh in the Netherlands
2. This heartbeat gif
“Envy will eat you alive; cynicism will eat your work alive.”
3. Jerry Saltz’s tips for art students
4. Paintings by Guayasamín
5. Exhibition: Queen by Molly Zuckerman-Hartung and Dana DeGiulio
6. This sewing gif
7. Poetry Readings
“One of the hardest things about being chronically ill is that most people find what you’re going through incomprehensible—if they believe you are going through it. In your loneliness, your preoccupation with an enduring new reality, you want to be understood in a way that you can’t be. “Pain is always new to the sufferer, but loses its originality for those around him,” the nineteenth-century French writer Alphonse Daudet observes in his account of living with syphilis, “In the Land of Pain.” “Everyone will get used to it except me.””
8. New Yorker article: What’s Wrong with Me? by Meghan O’Rourke
9. Videos of the old masters at work
10. Vintage NASA Posters
11. Isabelle Arsenault and her illustrations for Jane, the Fox, and Me
“I’m not a celebrity, I’m a worker. I’ve always worked. I was working before people read anything about me, and the day they stopped reading about me, I was doing even more work. And the idea that if you’re a mother, you’re not doing anything—it’s the hardest job there is, being a mother or father requires great sacrifice, discipline, selflessness, and to think that we weren’t doing anything while we were raising a son or daughter is appalling. It makes me understand why some human beings question their worth if they’re not making a huge amount of money or aren’t famous, and that’s not right.”
12. Interview with Patti Smith by Alan Light
22 Years
It’s that time again. The official day that I sit and reflect on my life as a person with diabetes. I say ‘official’ because this is something I think about daily (no special anniversary needed). It has now been 22 years since I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of 3. To avoid sounding redundant, I’ll skip the details about the struggle of attempting to manage some kind of control over my body. Instead, I’ll share some exciting things that I’m doing right now and have been doing that relate to art and diabetes.
- Children’s Book. Writing a children’s book has been a dream of mine since I was a kid myself. I’ve always loved reading and drawing and writing and thought “why not create a book of my own?” It’s taken a while to get to this point (I have many unfinished stories), but it’s real this time and I’m determined to publish it within the next year. The reason I’m mentioning the book in this post is because the book I’m writing/illustrating is meant for kids who are growing up with diabetes. I don’t want to share too much information yet, but I’ve been working on this since September and still have a lot of work left. I’m SO excited to share it soon. You can see peeks if you follow me on Instagram @anamoralesart.
- Thesis Work. For my MFA I have to complete a written thesis as well as create work for a thesis exhibition this summer in Chicago. Both are influenced by my experiences living with diabetes and the work that I’ve made about diabetes over the past six years. My goal is to document both processes over the next several months and share them here and on other social media platforms. I’m making plans for the steps I will take post-graduation, and that includes sharing my work broadly and figuring out how I can bring it into non-art spaces as well.
- Diabetes Study. This doesn’t directly relate to my art practice, except that it’s kind of like research. I’m currently participating in a 16 week study conducted by The Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Science at The University of Virginia. The purpose of the study is to test an Internet-based program for use with women with Type 1 diabetes who plan on one day becoming pregnant. The goal of the program is to help these women learn how to regulate their blood glucose levels for pregnancy. It is almost like taking a refresher course on how to manage my numbers, plus I’m learning lots of new information and making a greater effort to notice symptoms of high and low blood sugar.
- Education. While I don’t have much time to do anything else, I’ve still been thinking about what the next step is for me. In addition to being an artist, I am also an educator and I think there is great value in using visual art to spread information that encourages empathy. I am interested in any opportunity to bridge the gaps between people who are suffering in isolation and between doctors and patients. I want to talk to students, doctors, patients, parents, and partners about the power of art in the realm of medicine. Last month, my work was part of a display by Art in CME at the 41st Annual ACEhp Conference (Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions) and I hope to participate in more things like this in the future.
Stay tuned for updates and more documentation of my progress. Thanks for reading! xoxo
November + December Inspiration
“We never know which lives we influence, or when, or why.” -Stephen King
1. My fall semester instructors/advisors/mentors: Gerry Bannan, Tim Nickodemus, and Pamela Sneed
2. Illustrations by Maira Kalman
3. Documentary: Jiro Dreams of Sushi
4. Cut paper art by Rogan Brown
5. The life and afterlife of Henrietta Lacks a.k.a. He-La
6. Book: Sex is a Funny Word by Cory Silverberg and Fiona Smyth
“Guaranteeing to “get well” similarly reinforces the notion that health is a binary, with sickness on one side and wellness on the other. Is it? Doctors increasingly diagnose conditions pre-cancerous, pre-diabetic, pre-bad, and everyone’s health is constantly fluctuating, like one’s pulse or blood pressure.”
7. Article: The Pressure to Say You’re OK by Adam Baer
8. Book: The Reality Shows by Karen Finley
Fall 2015: Work
August/September/October Inspiration
1. Surgical Wall Project | Joshua Klein, Roy Schneider, and Tonya Floyd-Bradstock
2. Lynda Boss Illustrations
3. Andreina Davila | [I AM] Series
4. Art Experiments in Space
5. Scarred for Life | Ted Meyer
6. El Deafo by Cece Bell
7. One Lump or Two? Things That Suck About Being Diabetic by Haidee Soule Merritt
April Inspiration
Wow, can you believe it’s already May? Here are some things and people that inspired me last month:
1. Terry Winters
2. Jennifer Bartlett
3. Amy Poehler’s book Yes Please
4. Designs by Geoff McFetridge
5. Designs by Kate Zaremba
“Tig Notaro: I really had the fear that if I walked away from this opportunity to perform that I would never be able to again.
Ira Glass: Oh wow, I didn’t understand that.
Tig Notaro: Yeah. You know, my life could just start changing very quickly. I could immediately be on chemo. I could be ill. My past four months had shown me that who knows what’s coming up.”
6. This American Life by Ira Glass: “What Doesn’t Kill You”
Fall Semester Work
Last semester was intense. Along with working a couple part-time jobs and working on side projects, I took my first online MFA class and attempted to maintain a regular studio practice for school. Read more
Untitled
Various New Works
As a grad student, one of my goals is to make a lot of work and flesh out a lot of ideas. I got a good start during my first summer residency in Chicago. Here are several of the small paintings and drawings I created:
Untitled (Red and Blue Grid)
8″ x 8″
Watercolor
Untitled (Anonymous)
8″ x 8″
Ink + acrylic
Untitled (Pink Grid)
6″ x 6″
Watercolor
Untitled (R/N)
6″ x 6″
Ink + gouache + tape
Untitled (Data)
6″ x 6″
Blood
Untitled (Conversation)
6″ x 6″
Watercolor + ink
Untitled (Deal With It)
6″ x 6″
Watercolor + ink + acrylic
Untitled (Scrambled)
6″ x 6″
Watercolor + oil pastel