Anatomical Valentines

My Heart Needs Your Breath - Isabelle Dalle, complete with lungs and heart

Happy Valentine's Day! As an antidote to the over-sweet sentiments of love we often see expressed in the name of St. Valentine (a matyred victim of torture, if he was one person, apparently), here are some more anatomically correct Valentines, or at least, Valentines and art inspired by anatomy and anatomical diagrams.

Collage artist Isabelle Dalle runs a virtual cabinet of curiosities, and creates anatomical collages which are also a sort of clever visual pun.

Heart and soul, by Isabelle Dalle

Collage artist Travis Bedel merges vintage anatomical drawing and other etchings from old science texts to create his exuborant works bursting with life. You can purchase prints of his work here. (via HonestlyWTF and Laughing Squid)

 Travis Bedel

 Travis Bedel

 Travis Bedel

Anatomical hearts come in other media too. From textiles,

Eat your heart out, crochet art by Kate Jenkins

le corps humain, (or "the human body") 15 cm x 15 cm embroideries by Cécile Dachary, 2011

 

Hearts Crocheted satin cord, stainless steel 30x 30x 82 cm, by Sarah Maloney, 2000

to sculpture with beading,

Beaded heart by Jan Huling

to drawing

“ai no toriko” (which means "slave for love") by Yuka Yamaguchi

to painting and pyrography, like the many hearts of Fay Helfer (via Street Anatomy).

Asparagus Heart pyrography, natural pigment and pastel on wood 10” x 22”, by Fay Helfer

Clover Heart pyrography, natural pigment and pastel on wood by Fay Helfer

Sea Fan Heart pyrography, natural pigment and pastel on wood 8” x 12” by Fay Helfer

Textile Anatomy

Where textile art meets human anatomy!

Shannell Papp, Lab (skeleton), detail

Shannell Papp, Lab (skeleton)

Canadian artist Shannell Papp created Lab (skeleton), a complete, full-scale crocheted model of the human skeleton and organs. She writes, "I was pretty serious about making a very exacting replica of the human body. There are parts of the work that nobody sees–the brain has gray and white matter, the bones have marrow, the stomach has half digested food in it. I made it to understand my body better and I think this is why people like it," in  this interview. She has also made other textile works, whether crochet or embroidered, about human anatomy.

Shannell Papp, Bonebook (detail)

Shannel Papp, Bonebook and Blood Pools

Another Canadian artist was working on knitted and embroidered works about human anatomy in the late 90s. Sarah Maloney made these beautiful embroideries and knitted sculptural and multimedia works.

Sarah Maloney,
Knitted Arms, Shoe Forms, Gloves, 1997,
variable dimensions, multimedia, Photo: Ned Pratt

Sarah Maloney, Brain, Knitted cotton, stainless steel armature
35.6 x 35.6 x 152.4 cm
1988-1989, Photo: Paul Litherland

Sarah Maloney, Skeletal System,
Embroidered cotton on silk
305 x 112cm
1998-99, Photo: Geoffrey Gammon

Sarah Maloney,
Vertebrae, Sacrum, Coccyx,
Knitted cotton, stainless steel armature
36x 36 x 189 cm,
1998-99, Photo: Geoffrey Gammon

Sarah Maloney,
Circulatory System
Embroidered cotton on silk
305 x 112cm,
1998-99, Photo: Geoffrey Gammon

Similarly, LA-based artist Ben Cuevas has produced a knit skeleton and various organs and blood vessels.

Ben Cuevas, knit skeleton

Ben Cuevas,
Knit Veins: Fiber of Our Being

Some fibre artists are creating anatomical works about anatomy on an entirely different scale. Consider the 'macro' work of New Mexico-based artist Betty Busby. (Do, check out her portfolio. I'm in love with her dinosaur skull quilts).

Betty Busby, Neurotic 36x42

Betty Busby, Purkinje 37x44"

Betty Busby, Retia 60x45

 
 The neurons might be something most can identify in 'Neurotic'. Likewise, Purkinje refers to a class of neurons located in the cerebellum. 'Retia mirabilia' are a complex of arteries and veins lying very close to each other, found in some vertebrates. Purkin