Glial   
2016

Glial cells are all the non-neuron cells in the nervous system.  There are many different kinds of glial cells, each with a unique, specific function. They are support cells for the nervous system and are essential to nervous system function – but are somehow in the shadows in our awareness.  We think of the nervous system as an electrical system, but the glial cells are not like that at all. 

This body of work is the beginning of a study of glial cells.  The pieces are not representations of how glial cells look or work, necessarily. The artwork comes out of somatic experience – so it’s more about how glial cells feel– which is quite varied. 

I’ve poured ink and water to make puddles – to express a cellular feeling.  There are drawings within these pieces; some of the drawings are tidelines – which represent tide level changes during each day and night.  Tidelines show the impact of the moon’s orbit on daily ocean levels. Other drawings express the autonomic rhythm – one of our internal tides – whose fluctuations underlie the functioning of nervous system and consequently the whole body.

There are other body rhythms and systems that have included themselves in the work, and ultimately it is water, my main material, and its interaction with gravity, pigments, time and heat that makes each piece happen.