Thirteen Nights of Dreaming

Here's a piece I did for my Illustrated Maps class--we did a map inspired by "a place we feel we belong." The projects are being submitted to make-maps.blogspot.com , a blog started by artist Adam Hayes that features maps drawn by various artists. He will take a look at our class's maps and post some of them on his blog. We are supposed to submit a short description along with our personal map. Here's mine:

My nightstand is covered in glasses filled with varying levels of water. I always need a glass of water next to my bed when I am going to sleep, and many of my dreams involve being submerged underwater or take place near large bodies of water. I chose to map a collection of my water-themed dreams because I feel a sense of identity and belonging in these surreal spaces. I think my affinity for water may have something to do with growing up in the Great Lakes State, but it is also connected to my interest in the concealing and revealing of reality, motion within structure, and the nature of the subconscious.

Mental Disorders: Get in the Know (Concepts Final)

So I've been revisiting this idea of the ocean and sea creatures and how this parallels the human mind and the subconscious. (see my Dick and Jane series from a while back) It was a topic I explored freshman year a little bit and I wanted to re-engage those ideas in a different way for my Illustration Concepts II final.

I've been wanting to work with this specific imagery of sea creatures interacting with human anatomy, and my professor challenged me to find a real-world application for this idea (apart from a purely visual piece, which is what I had in mind) I came up with the idea of an awareness campaign for mental disorders, titled "Mental Disorders: Get in the Know" (cheesy, I know...) headed by the National Institute for Mental Health.

These posters reference early medical illustrations, but each image is a visual representation of a particular mental disorder and/or symptom. The idea would be to have a half-dozen or more of these posters, one for each mental disorder falling under the common categories (Mood, Psychotic, Anxiety, etc) The roman numerals are not meant to be sequential, merely a visual reference to the classic anatomy plates. As always, images can be clicked on and zoomed for a more detailed view! (I recommend it :)

Fun With Dick And Jane

Collaged image for my printmaking class, Hand-Drawn Photo.  Continuation of a series I started freshman year of Dick and Jane characters interacting with deep-sea creatures (see color illustrations below)  All text is from the original readers; only recontextualized.