2023 is coming to a close. I hope to be a better blogger and share more about the art I produce and my thoughts on my professional and personal art road ahead.
I humbly submit that I received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Association of Medical Illustrators National conference this past summer in Las Vegas. This would not have been possible without the opportunity to contribute to the teaching of exceptional graduate students along side an exceptional faculty in the Department of Art as Applied to Medicine’s graduate program @ Johns Hopkins for 37 years. Thank you everyone! The purpose of the Association of Medical Illustrator’s Lifetime Achievement Award is “to acknowledge and honor a medical illustrator who has been a Professional AMI Member for at least 30 continuous years, and whose life, work and accomplishments have significantly contributed to the profession and fellow illustrators. This award is the highest honor bestowed by the AMI to an individual, reaching beyond the service awards and the list of charter and distinguished members, to recognize a special person who has enriched our lives and influenced our ideals.”
I believe I have an innate curiosity that allows me to creatively capture my brushes with nature (even if they are mostly digital—lol) while attending to my love of ornamentation, and decorative graphic design, adding these elements beyond realism. Style is everything and I think I have retained mine in a personal voice in a manner that brings great satisfaction to me. I readily admit that I stray from time to time exploring different cultures to infuse into my nature interpretations while at the same time returning to comfortable notions that bring me joy. While I am faithful to many morphologic identifiable organism traits am not tied to them. Perhaps my visual interpretations beyond realism bring greater attention to Biodiversity’s majesty and beauty—I think I have succeeded in many ways—I hope so!
In this image three rainbow tie dye butterfly fish swim toward a larger tie dye swirl on a dark background in this fantasy fish underwater nature panel. Is life finite or is there a path to infinity? Here is another serendipity moment that arrived out of random thought with nature always on my mind. We are each on our own path bundling thought with experience and defining our fleeting perplexing purpose while seeking clues and chasing our muse. Chase your muse to find over 1400 nature inspired images in rectangular panel and circular mandala forms @ phelpsmandala.com.