Breadth (Bob): IPF, graphite pencil on paper, 30" x 22.5", 2017
Movement (Pat): ALS, graphite pencil on paper, 30" x 22", 2017
MICHELLE TILLANDER
Associate Professor, School of Art + Art History
Contact: mtillander@arts.ufl.edu
http://www.michelletillander.org/
Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation- http://www.pulmonaryfibrosis.org/
ALS Association- http://www.alsa.org/
No Fear, Only Joy… A creative Journey with ALS by S. Murphy-Pak- http://www.blurb.com/b/8041121-no-fear-only-joy-a-creative-journey-with-als
Health Destabilized
Drawing for me is about inquiry thinking in experiencing and knowing our world. While science offers diagnosis and scientific imagery, art allows us to visualize and express poetically our relationship to the world. Human health impacts are generally not part of the central discussions about biodiversity loss even though greater species diversity has been shown to have a protective effect in regards to human infection. The goal of Breadth (Bob): IPF and Movement (Pat): ALS is to raise awareness about a rare group of progressive and fatal diseases that affects the body at a cellular level, specifically the brain, spinal cord, and lungs. The series, Health Destabilized, use metaphors to provide structure, re-contextualize familiar objects in a new light, and to evoke emotion. At the cellular level, the body interconnects us to a complex biodiverse ecosystem. We depend on biodiversity in our daily living, in ways that are still not fully apparent in their impact on human health and well-being. The goal of Health Destabilized is to facilitate discussions, provide insights, and invoke action different from science in understanding biodiversity and our place and role in a rapidly changing world.