InverteFest Anthology

Cover art by Aspenhearted for the InverteFEST Anthology

I gave a talk this week about Data in Art, featuring how I depict scientific data in my art, and contrasting that with some of my favourites - artists working at the intersection of data and art and scientists who have produced data visualizations influenced by art. I found myself reviewing this blog and some of the posts I have made over the years. I found that I have neglected Magpie and Whiskeyjack! Hence, this is my cue to resume. So, let me draw your attention to the InverteFest Anthology! InverteFest is a thrice-yearly week-long celebration of all things invertebrate. Participants are encouraged to observe and share images of their local invertebrates. Science artists share invertebrate art. Science artist Franz Anthony has been publishing art books of shared invertebrate art. This year, author and artist Saimi Hanma organized an anthology, pairing up writers and artists who all produced collaborative works. It's a weird and wonderful, varied collection (layout by Franz Anthony). There's everything from poetry, to short stories, sci-fi to children's lit, satire, historical fiction and fantasy. You can download it for free from Saimi's website.

My cover art for 'Meet The Pollinators,' written by Lisa Jaffe and illustrated by me, Ele Willoughby

In it you'll find my contribution. I was paired up with Seattle-based writer Lisa Jaffe and together we decided to produce a board book, with some of our favourite pollinators from our respective homes in Ontario and the Pacific Northwest, respectively. She wrote the sweetest text introducing the little ones to our insect neighbours and I illustrated the book with my linocuts of insects and plants. Check it out! Be sure to also check Franz Anthony's gorgeous collections of submitted invertebrate art from artists of all ages, and from all over the world,

Multimedia Cacti

The elusive cactibou, linocut by Ele Willoughby 2014

I've been working on a sort of quite possibly completely imaginary cryptozoological menagerie, which began sometime after the elusive cactibou a prickly desert cat-cactus hybrid complete with caribou/saguaro antlers improbably appeared fully formed in my mind. (Part of the delight of this project for me is to write the pseudoscientific description of each of my beasties. You can find the cactibou's description, from zoology to ethnobotany here.)

People sometimes ask me where I get my ideas. It's not an obvious question to answer well ("from my head?"), but I do know that cats are indeed prickly, mine seems to store water and disdain drinking, and that cacti seem to be more an more apparent in art I see. I thought today I would share some of the cacti art I've been admiring.

Valentina Glez Wohlers' Prickly Pair Chair- Classic

Their unusual though organic forms are appealing, but I love the whimsical improbability of cactus as home decor, as the prickly plants do not suggest comfort. Mexican born London-based designer Valentina Glez Wohlers' heritage shines in her delightfully whimsical Prickly Pair Chairs, which merge Mexican cactus shapes and colours and patterns with traditional European chair designs.

Valentina Glez Wohlers' Prickly Pair Chair- Tenango de Doria

More straitghtforward perhaps would be a simple cactus shaped pillow. Here's a cute one complete with DIY from everything emilty. 

DIY a cacti sampler with a Japanese craft book

It's easy to find cacti in all sorts of different forms and media. Check out ceramicist Lina Cofán’s
amazing wunderkammer of cacti and other plants.  

Lina Cofán

Lina Cofán

Lina Cofán

There are even functional ceramic cacti, like this beauty of a teapot:

lofficina ceramic cactus teapot

 

I love also the cacti in perhaps even less expected media.

ThornAndNeedle has a series of knit cacti

Cactus cake by Tetyana

Cactus cupcakes via Alana Jones Mann

Czech artist Veronika Richterová's magical sculptures from recycled PET bottles include some truly magical cacti (and jellyfish, amongst other things, via thisiscolossal).

Veronika Richterová PET cacti

Veronika Richterová PET cacti

Veronika Richterová PET cacti detail

There are also some beautiful illustrations in more traditional media.

Cactus Nest by Michelle Morin (unitedthread on Etsy)

Cactus Trio by Michelle Morin

Bird Sanctuary No. 5 by Michelle Morin

Anatomy of a Cactus by Rachel Ignotofsky

The Paleobet

Rosemary Mosco of bird and moon describes herself as a nature lover with with a passion for science communication. She has a truely marvellous collection of illustrations and comics. You should check them out. As a fan of alphabets and prehistoric creatures, I can't resist sharing the Paleobet.

Laika, and Other Dogs in Space

A surprising number of non-human animals have been to space, from as early as 1947, when fruit flies were placed aboard a U.S.-launched V-2 rocket. Animals have been pioneers of aeronautic exploration since 1783 when the Montgolfier brothers sent a sheep, a duck and a rooster up in a hot-air balloon. Of all the fruit flies, mice, hamsters, guinea pigs, cats, dogs, frogs, goldfish and monkeys, perhaps none is as famous as Laika, a female stray dog, launched aboard the Soviet Sputnik 2 spacecraft, on November 3, 1957, into orbit. She died from over-heating (and no provisions had made to rescue her in the absence of technology to return from orbit), though at the time the Soviet governement had claimed she ran out of oxygen. Her mission did prove that higher organisms could survive being launched into orbit, and weightlessness, paving the way for humans to follow suit. She makes for a popular illustration subject. Here are some my favorite portraits of Laika and her colleagues.

Laika, First Dog In Space by Eric R. Mortensen. Source: designspiration.net via minouette on Pinterest

Source: iejusa.org.br via minouette on Pinterest

Source: octophant.us via minouette on Pinterest

Phineas X. Jones (Octophant). 9.5" x 25" Screenprint. Seven Screens on French Nightshift Blue 100 Lb Cover. Edition of 38. Signed & Numbered. (By the way, you should go check out his entire portfolio of awesomeness. I have his Bathysphere on my wall because would could resist an ocean-exploring three-toed sloth screenprint? Not this marine geophysicist/printmaker).

Nick Abadzis. Source: johannainman.blogspot.com via Explore on Pinterest

This is from the graphic novel Laika by Nick Abadzis (see an excerpt here).

Source: etsy.com via Business on Pinterest

'Strelka The Space Dog' by Berkley illustration, who selected Strelka, who survived her time in space, rather than Laika, who did not.

Adam Quest. Source: flickr.com via Nora on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via minouette on Pinterest

This illustration from a Russian matchbox is of Belka (Белка, literally, "Squirrel", but as a dog's name most likely means "Whitey", from Russian: "белый" (for "white")) and Strelka (Стрелка, "Little Arrow") who spent a day in space aboard Korabl-Sputnik-2 (Sputnik 5) on August 19, 1960 before safely returning to Earth.

Dribbble - Space Animal Stamp Series - Laika by Eric R. Mortensen. Source: designspiration.net via Katie on Pinterest

Illustrating Explorers

I'm enjoying the illustrations of Bristol-based illustrator Joe Todd Staunton. This cross-section of the oceanic water column with all its flora and fauna (and fishers) and their measurements and appropriate depths, first captured my attention:

Source: joetoddstanton.tumblr.com via minouette on Pinterest

via his blog where he wrote that he was considering adding sea birds above! It reminds me of working at sea with ROVs and watching the video feed as they descend or ascend from the depths.

Several other illustrations touch on scientists, academics and explorers, or draw on scientific illustration with their diagrammatic qualities, which is right up my alley.

Source: joetoddstanton.com via minouette on Pinterest

for an editorial "Cambridge professors to set tough new maths A-levels".

Source: joetoddstanton.tumblr.com via minouette on Pinterest

"Newest image from a project that is looking at explorers who died on there journeys. This one is about the astronaut Vladimir Komarov who died coming back to earth due to parachute failure."

Source: joetoddstanton.com via minouette on Pinterest

Source: joetoddstanton.com via minouette on Pinterest

for an editorial "Why bright lads are being picked on".

Check out his portfolio and blog for more!

Monster Drawings

Danish artist John Kenn spends his time writing and directing television, and raising kids, but manages to draw a portfolio full of elaborate and eerie monsters on Post-It notes. (via form is void)







Happy Hallowe'en!

Illustrating Science

I just saw a preview for The Where, the Why, and the How: 75 Artists Illustrate the Wondrous Mysteries of the Universe (Chronicle Books, 2012) by Matt Lamote, Julia Rothman, and Jenny Volvovskim who collaborated with a collection of scientists who wrote essays on a series of questions of science and a collection of 75 artists and illustrators who illustrated each question. They specifically gave artists free reign to represent the science as literally or imaginatively as they desired. At left is a fairly literal illustration by Isaac Tobin relating to whether earthquakes are predictable.

Yelena Bryksenkova's illustration for "the peppered moth, which changed color over several generations in response to industrial pollution in london" in answer to the question of whether evolution can outpace climate change.

Matt Forsythe's illustration for the question, "If humans and chimps have nearly identical DNA, how can we be so different?"

Gilbert Ford's illustration for why people blush.

Lotta Nieminen's illustration of latitudinal patterns in species diversity.

JooHee Yoon's illustration for "why do we dream?"

I really like the idea of combining the reasonably strict "scientific illustration" shown on the cover with more artistic freedom (as long as it's clearly the goal, as it is here). Sometimes scientific illustration is less than true to the science not because it uses a metaphoric artistic language, but because there's been some sort of break down in communication; that of course, is not something I appreciate (except, occasionally, because it's funny). Often concepts in science cannot be illustrated in a literal way without highly technical diagrams and associated education to 'read' these diagrams. Occassionally scientists wax poetic in their language, to handle communicating the difficult-to-communicate. Rarely, are they afforded a chance to be figurative in their figures (or work with artists to do so). Between that and the line up of illustrators, I think I would like to get my hands on this book. After all, science, art and books are three of my favorite things.

(↬design*sponge)

Women Astronauts

Sally Ride

I've been wanting to share Philip Bond's collection of illustrated astraunauts. I was reminded by reading of Sally Ride's death yesterday. Sally Ride was the first US female astronaut, a full two decades after the first female Russian cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova. Ride was also a physicist and a tireless advocate for kids' science education. She will be long remembered, as she inspired many.


Valentina Tereshkova

As Bond notes, "Valentina Tereshkova orbited the Earth 48 times during her three day spaceflight in Vostok 6 in 1963. First woman in space!"



"Svetlana Savitskaya became the second woman in space when she flew the Soyuz T-7 to the Salyut 7 space station in 1984. First woman to perform a spacewalk!"



"Sheffield born Helen Sharman spent eight days aboard the Russian Mir space station in 1991 after responding to a radio ad. Helen once worked as a chemist for Mars making chocolate more tasty. First Briton and fifteenth woman in space."



"Ontario born Roberta Bondar became the eighteenth woman in space when she flew aboard Shuttle Discovery's STS-42 mission in 1992. Neurologist, photographer, and Canada's first woman in space!"

The world's first neurologist in space, she is also recognized for her contributions to space medicine. Bondar, like many of my father's family, was born in Sault Ste. Marie. I have an aunt who once worked for her. You can find her photos on her website.

 

"Medical doctor Chiaki Mukai became the first Japanese woman in space when she flew aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia's STS-65 mission in 1994. She also flew on Shuttle Discovery's STS-95 mission in 1998. 25th woman in space!"

I really appreciate his loose lines, and playful colouring in these near-caricature portraits. It's easy to see how the stories of these women could inspire this collection. You can see the rest of Bond's female astronaut series here and check out his website here.