Need a fresh start

So... I'm moving to a new blog... on a different platform

Sorry blogger - its been nice

catch me here:

http://ailishsullivan.tumblr.com/

New experiments

HIV

To me they looked like poppies, if you want to think deeply about it, the poppy represents death and so does HIV - and even though they are very different kinds of death, it is all the same in the end.

I am not a great person with words but hopefully the message comes through.

Magnolia Wood

I might start a series of wood micro-graph paintings because each wood is very different under the microscope which make so much sense when you make the relation.
Graphite

My favorite of the selection, the colours are so interesting and the angular and sharp/brittle strokes really translated to how graphite feels.

Artist Statement

I am a painter infatuated with science which forms the basis of most of my work. I paint to expand my own knowledge of science as well as that of the viewer through my watercolour paintings. I look for that moment of realisation, when science offers an explanation as to how our world works.

I enjoy the delicate way of painting with watercolours which is very organic, a building up of paint which relates to the growth and building of cells. Most recently I have been taking inspiration from under the microscope collaborating with life scientists.

I begin a piece by looking for an iconic item then studying the cellular images to merge them together and create a striking work. The chance to learn and grow motivates me to keep painting. The subject of science is always new and changing and offers limitless inspiration.

Biography

I was born in Boston in 1989. I was initially inspired by the wilderness which was so prevalent and immediate. My grandmother enjoyed painting nature and taught me how to appreciate the little ‘miracles’ and spectacles that happened every day. Moving to London in 1999 I was introduced to the vastness of the world and different cultures. My parents were very interested in science and constantly engaging me in discussions and research. This took more form as I started to move my work towards what I enjoyed as I was given more freedom at the University of Westminster studying illustration. I have worked to organise and curate exhibitions in London and run a small art collective with previous students. I am touring an exhibition ‘Broad Vision’ which is collaboration between scientists, illustrators and photographers and showing this in the Margate Photography Festival in August.

Decisions

This is a rare post, no pictures. So I am stuck at a crossroads after university. I need to create some paintings growing from what I've achieved so far. I have that intense pressure that it must be better, bigger and launch me even more than what I have done so fare, more professionalism. This pressure has stalled anything creative. Unfortunate but inevitable. So I am sitting at my computer now, trying to concentrate on what to do next. I've got plenty of ideas but motivating them onto the page is hard. I'll try and keep this blog more updated too.

Thankyou Heather!

http://broadvision.ning.com/profiles/blogs/margate-photo-fest-exhibition?xg_source=facebookshare

Margate Photography Festival

Been a while since I blogged because I've been so busy. I recently curated a show for Broadvision, a group of science and arts students, as part of the Margate Photography Festival. It went extremely well with alot of traffic thanks to it being listed as one of the top places to see that weekend by the guardian.

It included alot of work and the artists and scientists can be followed up on the site here :

http://www.broad-vision.info/

It was a great experience and a big learning curve again. I hope I can keep going and glad that it turned into such a success for all the artist involved.

SITE!

http://ailishillustrations.4ormat.com/

Potential cover for upcoming book no.2

Yes, it's cheesy and formal but I haven't got the luxury of time to spend on it. Putting more effort into the drawings instead. It's a book of objects (skull, buttercup, bird, goldfish, heart and tree) all representing their microscopic structure.

Book. Finished.

Very simple cover because time is not on my side but it's an image i have been playing with for weeks and I hope it looks elegant and mysterious, maybe.

Microscopy exhibition

Been working for a long long while on these peices (which are a1 in size!) for the broadvision microscopy exhibition in London Gallery West. Opening night is 5th of May and I am co curator! So come along if your in and about.The skull and the buttercup are made up textures that represent what they look like at a microscopic scale. So the bone microscopic texture is manipulated into the silhouette of the skull and the plant cells are shown to reflect the buttercup.

Exhibition catalogue portrait

There is a kind of stigma when drawing yourself I think.... Personally, they seem to come out very simple, in contrast to my work.

Infinite Monkey Therom

The final chapter illustrates infinity in a familiar thought experiment. More to come as I finish drawing it....

Birds of Paradise

Really enjoyed drawing something light, such as the birds of paradise. Made as part of professorial practice they are part of an illusion experiment where you take a picture of a cage and a bird, attach back to back and on top of a pencil. When you roll the pencil between your hands quickly, the images of the bird and the cage merge and it appears as if the bird is inside the cage.

Maxwell's Demon

These are images from the second chapter of my final project. They try and show the quite abstract thought experiment of Maxwell's demon which involves a demon separating a container into hot and cold particles so demonstrating one of the laws of thermodynamics.

These are double page spreads trying to use the crease in the page to effect to interact with the illustrations.

Broadvision

Very little updates recently as I have been working tons on layout designs etc. But alongside the final major project I am exhibiting with a group of scientists next month and working on the theme of microscopy. I'm sketching bone and buttercup cells and contrasting/comparing their close up and real eye view.

Large watercolour paintings to come...

Newton's cannonball

Still working on the design and how to colour it. Getting closer to something finished. Starting to put the cannonball's trajectory in the pictures as well.

Experiments to send to agents

Hopefully, it would be very different amongst the piles of self promotion books and posters to get an interactive experiment. This is still in progress but hopefully you would cut on the dotted lines and pierce a hole in the sun, running a string through it. Hold it above a light bulb and the convection heat makes it spin.

Newton's cannonball

Newton used an analogy to demonstrate gravity. Working on a series of images to go in a book on scientific thought experiments. Hopefully this image will work in the book but still needs some work.

Beddow and Battini, Fictitious city

I was recently part of a great exhibition with artists and illustrators in Southwark, London. I collaborated with the writer, Nadia Gasper. It was a great experience (and I got to be on itv London news with my work for all of 5secs!) I created two pieces, one which was for the writer to write a piece about, and the second as a response to one of Nadia's poems.

Nadia's blog can be found here:

http://thechroniclesofnadia87.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/beddow-and-battinis-latest-success/

There are alot of great reads if you get a chance :)

Final Images from Last Semester

Created a series of images showing creatures that can survive in extreme heat or cold. Kinda enjoying finding a way of working. Next: more theory based images. To hopefully start appearing here soon (and more regularily).

A world without birds

a small piece aimed at accompanying an article in The Independant.