Object Acquisition # Spratt, G.

Documenting objects from The Hunt Show:

Object Acquisition# A newly acquired book with anatomical flaps: Spratt, G. Obstetric Tables: Comprising Graphic Illustrations, with Descriptions and Practical Remarks: Exhibiting on Dissected Plates Many Important Subjects in Midwifery. Philadelphia: James A. Bill, 1850
Object interpreted and Statement by Cyan Bott

Thank you for looking.

Can anything be art when imbued with meaning? Is it art or is it memory?

Do they function the same?

For this piece, I was working from the memory of an object, trying to recreate that memory in tangible form. That image that I saw initially - and the meaning I took from it - were the jumping-off point. From there it was just a free-fall of responding to the materials at hand.

Process - based work, created by the natural rhythms of the hands, has a different resonance than that which is premeditated. There is room for evolution, immediacy and expressiveness when responding to things as they surface. It's a process of decision making and being able to follow your gut. Ultimately it is all about the confidence you have in your decisions and the actual conviction behind them.

For me, making is an escape from intellectualism, It's one of the few things that I can do on autopilot, using my eyes and hands to guide me.

"Manipulating material is a way to speak."

Jessica Stockholder

More Heart Valves:

OHSU will be highlighting M.Lowell Edwards... 

the co-inventor of the Starr Edwards Heart Valve that our hunt show artist Clare Carpenter interpreted. 

Hope you can check out these great artifacts.

New exhibit: Oregon's M. Lowell Edwards: 

Co-Inventor of the Starr-Edwards Heart Valve

MILES LOWELL EDWARDS (1898 TO 1982)

Object Acquisition # 2007-2.102 Heart Valves

Documenting objects from The Hunt Show:

Object Acquisition # 2007-2.102 Heart Valves

Object interpreted and Statement by 

Clare Carpenter www.tigerfoodpress.com

The prints in this series represent the processing of many complicated sets of dual ideas. Valves, by their nature, are mindless gatekeepers. They are almost binary in their function. Yes, No. Open, Closed. The Mitral Valve is itself a bi-leaf structure, and the artificial Mitral Valve first developed and implanted in 1960 by Portland’s Dr. Albert Starr and engineer Lowell Edwards are defined by dualities. The artificial valve is at once representative of improbability and overwhelmingly successful innovation. In the process of making these prints I wanted to explore representing duality using positive and negative space, abstraction and representation. A heart that is not really a heart, the areas where black and white make grey; because in fact, a valve’s function is not simply binary but may comprise many degrees of open and closed.

Participating in The Hunt has also, for me, been an exploration of duality. At times it’s felt like an exercise in patience with myself and my process. The opportunity to take in so much information from the historic archives at OHSU, to the immense amount of medical information I’ve sifted through, to the personal anecdotes I’ve heard from people who’ve been treated by Dr. Starr, within all of that I could get lost for many, many months. However the incredible help of fellow artists participating in the project, and other artists simply willing to lend an ear when I needed to blurt through everything I’ve taken in to help me discern the tiny nugget that needed to be gleaned from all of that information – that has been a truly wonderful and certainly lasting result.

Recapping the Summer...

About this time of year as the rain comes down... and I have to remember to wear socks... I reflect on the warmth and lazy days of the summer...  and the funny things I take photos of...

Sometimes these make it into work... 

other times they feed the work.

Enjoy! & as always thanks for reading these wandering...

Sunrise...

a sign...

to head to the sky for a better look...

landing...

night...

bench sitting...

peeps...

 

reflecting on the line of people...

back to the beginning...

waiting to rest...

or roll in the grass...

enjoying the last bits of abundance...

Object Acquisition # 2007-11 Acuity Projector

Documenting objects from The Hunt Show:

Object Acquisition # 2007-11 Acuity Projector

Object interpreted and Statement by Casey Judy www.caseyjudy.com

"It’s not easy growing old"

My 90-year-old- Grandpa is mentally sharp for his age and has always been an avid reader but he has macular degeneration, which blinds some areas in his eyes’ retinas. These days he can’t read nearly as well and is forbidden to drive at night, both of which diminish his quality of life. Because I’ve been living with him for the last three years to keep him company and help him when I can, I see his degeneration first-hand. And, it’s painful to watch.

Grandpa’s failing eyesight became a source of inspiration for my artwork in the OHSU scavenger hunt project – as did a little serendipity. That is, to decide which artist in this exhibition got what object to work from, we pulled numbers associated with the objects from a basket. I blindly selected the acuity projector by Kenneth Swan, founder of the Casey Eye Institute. This turn-of-the-century machine measures the acuity of a person’s vision, which really hit home for me because of my Grandpa; and it’s a funny twist because my name is Casey.

What I have made for this project is very different from my usual work of bright and vibrant colors. My piece is white representing the light projected from the Acuity Projector. Then I have carved the chart into the plaster, but the numbers and letters shown are significant to my Grandpa’s life. Reading this eye chart I have created, all in white makes it difficult for some to even see at all. This is similar to what my Grandpa sees. The splotches of white paint on top of the plaster represent the splotches in his eyes.  The complete work reflects what we all must deal with, if we’re lucky: Growing old. 

Object Acquisition # 77-96.1.35 Electro Diagnostic Set

Documenting objects from The Hunt Show:

Object Acquisition # 77-96.1.35

Object interpreted and Statement by Beth I. Robinson www.robinpress.com

Transillumination - enlightenment through the process of examination

“Transillumination maybe explained as directing a highly concentrated, penetrating chromatic light through the process of examination. The transmission of this light through the process, by virtue of reflection and selective absorption enables us to actually see what conditions exist. Darkness or Light, which one for you?”

Text from a small brochure enclosed with Dr. J. C. Bartlett, M.D.’s Electro Diagnostic Set from the Medical Archives at Oregon Health and Science University.

In these transillumination drawings, I am shedding chromatic light on these confused, cold and car-wreck like recontextualized anatomy parts. It is my hope, that We, the people, will see what actual conditions exist within our current healthcare system.

Butterfly stitched spine, white Stonehenge pages with Gampi paper cover, watercolor crayons, digital collage, drawing, 

$600 includes box

Curators Note: I was also the curator for this show... My fellow artist twisted my arm to take the last object.  I wrote in my curator notes (which I will post the entirety at the end)...

I have been humbled at the excitement of my fellow artists/hunters to join me in “the hunt.”

Each one of these objects randomly chosen made their way to the right person. My own object is a large flashlight used to bring light in dark places. Much like any curator’s job should be.