periodic hiatus

If you look back at previous posts on this blog, you will notice that my posting history is cyclical (sounds better than "sporadic", doesn't it?). I think it is natural, when you are not a "full-time artist", to do more creative endeavors when other responsibilities ebb and flow -- which they often do in academics. Interestingly (I suppose), the end of a LONG year-and-a-half of stressful teaching-during-COVID ended in the middle of May, and yet I have not been very active creatively or on this blog since. This time, unfortunately, my hiatus coincides with a bout of depression that I am experiencing. Strange how depression works. It's irrational, for sure. I have SO many thing NOT to be depressed about -- my life is generally pretty excellent. But alas. And so I am working things out, I hope. Last night was the first time I have been in the studio for a while; and I "re-entered" by doing one of the things I like to do -- looking through old stacks of individual pages I have ripped from magazines and books over the years. I ofetn have forgotten about interesting elements that I have collected over the years. I've made posts of these sessions before, and I think they're fun. So here's the latest installment.

Chemistry and collage

Since I will be moving into a new office this fall in the new science center at Utica College, I have decided to do a "deep purge" of all the STUFF I have accumulated over the years. It's been a LONG time since I was an undergraduate chemistry major at Oswego State (I ended-up getting a degree in psychology; but used a lot of my chemistry background for my Ph.D. in psychobiology). Anyway, I decided that it was time to get rid of my intro. chemistry textbook and my organic textbook as well. Interestingly, the textbook I had for intro. chemistry included a make-shift stereoscope to look at the illustrations in the textbook of chemical structure to render them three-dimensional. Very cool idea, methinks! Unfortunately, I have very poor binocular vision; so it never really worked for me. Here are some of the illustrations that were created to make the 3-D effects. I cut them from the book as potential transfer images (and will probably share half with my friend and fellow collagist Anthony Morgan). Collage is always "pan-disciplinary"! Oh yeah, I also included this interesting "note to self", for fun.