acrylic | Hunter Art

New Painting – The Brain and Smoking, Part 2 [Secondhand Smoke]

March 6, 2012 mhunterart Leave a comment

Hi Everyone,

The National Institutes of Health released a press release in May 2011 covering their findings on the impact of secondhand smoke on the brain. The article stated that those exposed to secondhand smoke suffer the same impact as those that do smoke. Being around secondhand smoke regularly could create behavioral patterns in the brain that promote smoking. You can read the press release here: http://www.nih.gov/news/health/may2011/nida-02.htm

With that said, I’m pleased to share with you the follow up painting to
“Brain and Smoking, Part 1“

It Begins: The Brain and Secondhand Smoke Part 2

20″ x 24″

Acrylic on stretched canvas

The smoke beginning to build in the brain represents the start of the brain establishing similar patterns with the brain of someone that smokes regularly. As referenced in the above article by the NIH, those that are about secondhand smoke can develop brain patterns that promote smoking.

This piece is the companion to “Brain and Smoking, Part 1“

By seeing the two paintings side-by-side, you can the areas that are highlighted in one profile but not the other. For “Brain and Smoking, Part 1” which is on the right, the white outline remains strong around the mouth which is the smoke fumes are mostly inhaled, in addition to the nose. For “It Begins: The Brain and Secondhand Smoke” the white outline is strong around the nose and not the mouth.

What also connects the works is the smoke. The smoke coming from the profile on the right is being inhaled by the profile painting on the left.

As usual, let me know your thoughts and I look forward to sharing my next brain painting with you!

Check out the others works that make up the brain series so far. The works address: being present, caffeine, memory, alcohol, sleep and music. http://hunterart.blogspot.com/2012/02/brain-series.html

Regards,
Michelle

Facebook Page [facebook.com/hunterart]

Hunter Art Blog [hunterart.blogspot.com]

Twitter [@artcoholic]

LinkedIn [linkedin.com/in/hunterart]

Categories: acrylic, art, artist, black and white, brain, canvas, dopamine, hunter, michelle hunter, national institutes of heath, new york, new york city, nicotine, painting, secondhand smoke, smoking

The Brain Series

March 5, 2012 mhunterart Leave a comment

A series illustrating how various parts of our brain impact our behavior and vice versa

This post will be updated with new work. Stay tuned or chose to be notified via email by completing this brief form: http://eepurl.com/OUkJ

Click on the blog links below the images to read more about the work.

All rights reserved (c) Michelle Hunter

Creative commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Yet to be Seen (c) 2012 Michelle Hunter
http://hunterart.blogspot.com/2012/04/new-painting-on-brain-and-visual-cortex.html

It Begins: The Brain and Secondhand Smoke Part 2 (c) 2012 Michelle Hunter
http://hunterart.blogspot.com/2012/03/new-painting-brain-and-smoking-part-2.html#

Brain and Smoking – Part 1 (c) 2012 Michelle Hunter
http://hunterart.blogspot.com/2012/02/new-painting-brain-and-smoking-part-1.html


Brain Rhythm (c) 2011 Michelle Hunter http://hunterart.blogspot.com/2011/10/new-brain-painting-brain-rhythm-24×24.html

Zzzzzzz (Sleep) (c) 2011 Michelle Hunter
http://hunterart.blogspot.com/2011/05/new-painting-nap-time.html

First Aid (c) 2011 Michelle Hunter
http://hunterart.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-painting-first-aid.html

Don’t You Remember? (c) 2010 Michelle Hunter
http://hunterart.blogspot.com/2010/12/new-painting-dont-you-remember.html

Caffeine Headache (c) 2010 Michelle Hunter
http://hunterart.blogspot.com/2010/10/caffeine-headache.html

Past, Present, Future or Dreaming (c) 2010 Michelle Hunter
http://hunterart.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-painting-which-image-matches-your.html

Categories: abstract, acrylic, alcohol, artwork, bar, bed, brain, caffeine, coffee, conceptual, headaches, memory, music, rubix cube, sleep, smoking, speakers, wire

New Brain Painting: Brain Rhythm | 24"x24" | Acrylic on Stretched Canvas

October 4, 2011 mhunterart Leave a comment

It’s DONE!!! Finally!!!!

I’m very happy to introduce you to the 6th painting in my Brain Series.

Brain Rhythm

24″x24″

Acrylic on Stretched Canvas

This painting came a long way. Things were smooth sailing until I hit the part with the grill. Did not anticipate having to make soooooooo many circles and how long that process was going to take. Let me first take a couple of steps back.

In the Beginning….

The concept, in general, was to paint what parts of the brain are most active when it comes to music. While doing further research, I learned that different parts of the brain become active when doing different musical activities: listening, playing (instrument) and reading.

An object that brought those components together for me was the speaker. What’s music without being able to hear it? Also sheet music is the way to capture the details of a piece so it’s able to be recreated. A speaker and sheet music, along with the brain, were the pieces I wanted to put together in a way that felt right. Given how a speaker is made of layers, having the brain at the center surrounded by wavy sheet music underneath a grill/mesh became the composition.

Brain Rhythm [Detail]

The Brain and Music

The concept in general was to paint what parts of the brain are most active when it comes to music.There are areas both in the outer cortex and inner brain that are connected to our experience of music. For this painting, I focused on the outer area:

Prefrontal Cortex (yellow): When you are listening to music, ever have an experience where something didn’t “sound right”? Perhaps you feel that a beat was missed.

After a few bars of music, you begin expecting a certain pattern to repeat correct? Thank your prefrontal cortex’s ability to sense when something is off.

Motor Cortex (green): Here controls when you are tapping your foot and bopping your head. It’s an especially important area of the brain if you are a musician as you need the ability to control time movements.

Sensory Cortex (purple): Which string to strum on a guitar, keys on a piano, maneuvering a violin etc requires an acute sense of touch.

Auditory Cortex (blue): This area of the brain becomes alive when we hear music. It holds information pertaining to pitch and tones.

Visual Cortex (pink): Involving sight when reading music and watching performers. If you are like me and are not a musician but catch yourself imagining yourself on stage, the visual cortex helps get your imagination flowing.

Tell me what you think…don’t be shy 🙂

Michelle Hunter
info@hunterart.com
http://www.facebook.com/hunterart
Hunterart Line: 646-504-5034
Twitter: Artcoholic

Brain series (so far):
Painting 1: Past, Present, Future or Dreaming
http://hunterart.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-painting-which-image-matches-your.html

Painting 2: Caffeine Headache
http://hunterart.blogspot.com/2010/10/caffeine-headache.html

Painting 3: Don’t You Remember?

http://hunterart.blogspot.com/2010/12/new-painting-dont-you-remember.html

Painting 4: First Aid

http://hunterart.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-painting-first-aid.html

Painting 5: Zzzzzzz (Sleep)

http://hunterart.blogspot.com/2011/05/new-painting-nap-time.html

Categories: acrylic, auditory, brain, conceptual, cortex, motor, music, musician, painting, pattern, pitch, prefrontal cortex, rhythm, sensory, series, sheet music, speaker, tones, visual

Work in Progress Shots: Brain and Music, 24" x 24" Acrylic on Canvas

August 16, 2011 mhunterart Leave a comment

Hello everyone,

It’s been some time since the last painting update but I haven’t been idle. Below I would like you to see progress pics of my upcoming painting on the Brain and Music.

The composition is a speaker where within it is the brain and sheet music.

Within the brain will be sections that are most active when either listening or playing music. Those sections will be highlighted with different colors and explained in the next blog post when the painting is completed.

Around the brain will be sheet music. The notes themselves are pretty random and aren’t from any particular song. The sheet music is wavy which is meant to show the flow of music and help draw the viewer into the painting.

On top of all the elements within the speaker will be the mesh/grill. It’ll cover the entire painting. Lots and lots and lots of little circles.

Because of all those circles, completing the painting has taken longer than expected. But I think it’ll be pretty damn cool once it’s done. Stay tuned!

Regards,

Michelle

Categories: acrylic, brain, conceptual, music, painting, sheet music, speaker

New Painting: Nap time!!

May 19, 2011 mhunterart Leave a comment

Zzzzzzz (Sleep)

20″ x 20″

Acrylic on Stretched Canvas

Now if you know anything about me, other than I’m an artist, you would know that I LOVE sleep. Sleep is awesome and one of the best things in the world. So doing a painting on the brain and sleep was particularily interesting to me.

The Concept
We spend about one-third of our lives sleeping,so this is a topic we all can relate to. Sleep not only feels good for its relaxing nature but it is crucial for brain development and dealing with what we encountered while awake.

Detail: Zzzzzzz (Sleep)
(c) Michelle Hunter 2011

Hippocampus (yellow) – Stores our short term memory. So when we sleep, that information is transfered into our cortex which holds long term memory.

Prefrontal cortex (front of the brain) – Ever been awake for too long? Brain feels heavy and screaming for sleep? If you pay it a little attention, that screaming may feel concentrated at the front of the brain. The prefrontal cortex is sensitive to sleep deprivation. It is also highly active while dreaming.

Thalamus (middle of green) – In order for our brain to proceed processing information taken in during the day, the brain needs to shut off outside stimuli. That happens thanks to thalamus. If someone doesn’t respond to what you may say or do to them while they are asleep, they are busy processing…so stop bothering them.

Pineal gland (back middle of green area) – produces melatonin. When produced, we get sleepy. Light reduces the production of melatonin so if you’re trying to fall asleep but a light is on or TV, good luck.

Hypothalamus (front middle of green) – is what naturally signals us for when it’s time to sleep and when it’s time to wake up.

Brainstem (bottom of green) – those wakey wakey signals from the hypothalamus travel through the brainstem to the rest of our body to get us moving (and in some cases, we may just move into another position to fall back asleep).

The Colors
Well I took a picture of my bed with the lights out so I can try to get a sense of how the pillows and sheets looked in the dark. I put some free weights on the pillow to see how impressions were made as if ones head was laying on the pillow. That resulted in most of the painting being blacks and blues.

Since the focus of the painting is the brain I decided to have the brain fairly ‘bright’ since it’s still very active while all else is calm. The colors used, orange, green, yellow, red were a nice complement to the blacks and blues used for the rest of the painting.

No Face! WHY?
Well of course the painting isn’t about the face; we all sleep so it doesn’t matter who the is person that’s in bed. No need to try to guess who it would be, who they may remind you of or try to critique their face. So, no face. Yet I wanted to show that it is human being in bed, so I show some shoulders and the neck which then fades to the pillow s/he/it is resting on. It then resumes at the brain.

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Check out pictures of this painting while it was forming by visiting this blog post: http://hunterart.blogspot.com/2011/05/wip-brain-painting-no5-on-brain-and.html

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ALL feedback is welcome, there are tons of ways to reach me. Also feel free to share this with others you feel would want to see it.

Thanks for reading!! Until next time….

~Michelle

http://hunterart.blogspot.com/

info@hunterart.com
Hunterart Line: 646-504-5034
Twitter: Artcoholic
GTalk: mkh9781 or uniqueh

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Brain series (so far):

Painting 1: Past, Present, Future or Dreaming

http://hunterart.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-painting-which-image-matches-your.html

Painting 2: Caffeine Headache

http://hunterart.blogspot.com/2010/10/caffeine-headache.html

Painting 3: Don’t You Remember?

http://hunterart.blogspot.com/2010/12/new-painting-dont-you-remember.html

Painting 4: First Aid

http://hunterart.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-painting-first-aid.html

Categories: acrylic, brain, brainstem, conceptual, hippocampus, Hypothalamus, painting, pineal gland, prefrontal cortex, series, sleep, thalamus

>WIP Brain Painting No.5 on the Brain and Sleep

May 17, 2011 mhunterart Leave a comment

Hello!!

This post is to share with you in progress shots of the next painting in the Brain series focusing on the Brain and Sleep. I have plenty of research experience in this area as all of you. In case you didn’t know, we spend about a third of our life sleeping and it’s something we certainly cannot live without.

So what’s happening in our Brain when we dose off? Well I’ll get into that when I post the finished painting (which will be soon). Until then here are some shots of the piece in progress. ENJOY!

: WIP #1 (c) Michelle Hunter

: WIP #2 (c) Michelle Hunter

: WIP #3 (c) Michelle Hunter

: WIP #4 (c) Michelle Hunter

: WIP #5 (c) Michelle Hunter

: My palette

: WIP #6 (c) Michelle Hunter

: WIP #7 (c) Michelle Hunter

: WIP #8 (c) Michelle Hunter

: WIP #9 (c) Michelle Hunter

: WIP #10 (c) Michelle Hunter

~Michelle

Categories: abstract, acrylic, art, artwork, brain, brushes, conceptual, painting, sleep

WIP Brain Painting No.5 on the Brain and Sleep

May 13, 2011 mhunterart Leave a comment

Hello!!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

: WIP #1 (c) Michelle Hunter

: WIP #2 (c) Michelle Hunter

: WIP #3 (c) Michelle Hunter

: WIP #4 (c) Michelle Hunter

: WIP #5 (c) Michelle Hunter

: My palette

: WIP #6 (c) Michelle Hunter

: WIP #7 (c) Michelle Hunter

: WIP #8 (c) Michelle Hunter

: WIP #9 (c) Michelle Hunter

: WIP #10 (c) Michelle Hunter

~Michelle

Categories: acrylic, art, artwork, bed, brain, canvas, conceptual, mind, painting, series, sleep

New Painting: First Aid

March 16, 2011 mhunterart 1 comment

First Aid
20″ x 20″
Acrylic on Stretched Canvas

Hello everyone….can I get you a drink? It’s on me 😉

I’m pleased to share with you my latest painting titled “First Aid”.

Want to see pictures of this painting from beginning to end? (7 new pictures added) Click here to view my previous blog post: https://michellehunterart.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/work-in-progress-shots-of-first-aid-20-x-20-arcylic-on-stretched-canvas/

While some titles for paintings don’t come to me pretty easily, this one came into my head before I was done with painting the outline for the composition I scrapped.

Most of the time, getting a drink feels like putting on a band-aid on to help cover up whatever is going on. Whether you:

Had a long day and feel like you want to unwind,
Are dealing/coping with something personally,
Wanting to avoid something (emotionally or physically),
May feel out of place without a drink in your hand,
Want the courage to do something you wouldn’t typically do while sober
Feel free to add to this list based on your own experience

What’s a quicker fixer-upper than a drink?!

Having the setting for the painting within a bar seemed natural. I chose to use a shot glass instead of a regular glass because a shot gets straight to the point – nothing to sip or savor here.

The label on the bottle was a clear place to put a red cross.

As your liquor of choice is being poured into the glass, certain parts of the brain imprinted on the glass are becoming activated:

Cerebral cortex: This is the outermost part of the brain where you process thoughts and where consciousness resides. When alcohol is introduces, it is here where processing of information from the senses like your eyes, ears, touch, etc become inhibited. Here is also where you become unable to think clearly and start to think more slowly.

Cerebellum (round part at the base of the brain): Here controls out center of movement and balance. Alcohol leaves us off balance and/or staggering.

Hypothalamus and pituitary: This region coordinates automatic brain functions and hormone release. As you drink, the nerve centers in the hypothalamus that control sexual arousal become pressed down and strained. So while your sexual urge may increase, your sexual performance declines.It’s a little hard to see but there are clutters of gender symbols in the shadow of the glass.

Medulla (lower part of the brain stem): The impact of alcohol on this area of the brain results in sleepiness, perhaps you feel a chill and/or notice your breathing slowing. The medulla controls such automatic functions like breathing, consciousness and body temperature.

Source: http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/drugs-alcohol/alcoholism4.htm

Now my most difficult area for me of this painting was painting glass (the shot glass and bottle) especially since both are clear. That’s what delayed me the most because I didn’t want to mess it up. Through some help from Twitter, and me getting out of my head, it only took me a couple of days to finish the piece. I’m very proud of it.

So,with all that said, CHEERS!

Regards,
Michelle

Categories: acrylic, brain, canvas, Cerebellum, Cerebral cortex, conceptual, Hypothalamus, Medulla, painting, pituitary

Work In Progress Shots of "First Aid" 20" x 20" Acrylic on Stretched Canvas

March 4, 2011 mhunterart 1 comment

Hi there!

OK I’ve been taking WAY TOO LONG to finish what will be the fourth installment of my BRAIN series. Excuses I care to share include laziness and mind driven fear of painting an image of glass (though skillfully I knew I could) which then lead to procrastination.

FINALLY, I’ve gotten out of my head and in front of my easel to bring you 6 progress shots of “First Aid”. Click on the images to get a larger view.

Details/reasoning into the composition will be included in a blog post when the piece is finished. In the meantime, feel free to speculate and share your feedback….you know how to reach me.

Regards,
Michelle

See the finished painting here!!

Categories: acrylic, bottle, brain, canvas, conceptual, first aid, firstaid, glass, open bar, people

New Painting: Moon Eye [tentative title]

December 28, 2010 mhunterart Leave a comment

Moon Eye

12” x 48”
Acrylic on Stretched Canvas

Greetings to you!

I’m happy to share with you my latest completed painting which is yet to be officially named. It was started back in early/mid 2009 and was set aside for quite some time with a few other paintings that are unfinished.

Now, I love sharing the back story of my paintings with you, however for this one, I can’t really remember what sparked the idea [click here for a little more insight into my memory]. At the time, I was working on pieces that were all different from one another so this is the only painting I’ve done in this style.

I Did It Because I Wanted To Do It

Though I don’t remember what it was inspired by, I can tell you how it was done. I took a picture of myself with a fan covering half of my face. The fan was what I had used as part of my Geisha costume for Halloween back in 2007. I liked the picture but I wanted it to be different but using some bright colors as if it was a negative of a picture. With a little GIMP magic, I altered the original photo by introducing some blues and greens.

Full Moons

Doing that also created an option for what to do with my eye. I originally thought I would paint my eye as is but quickly realized that the negative of something black/dark brown is something very light. Then what came to mind was the moon. There are evenings of the full moon when it is incredibly bright in the dark night sky. So why know paint my eye as the moon!

I tucked my other eye away behind the shadow of the fan. With all that, here is a really cool painting (in my biased opinion :-))

If you want to, you are more than welcome to let me know your thoughts on it (info@hunterart.com)!

Until the next painting announcement, I wish you all the best and a Happy and Joyful New Year!!!

Best regards,

Michelle

Special shoutout to Mr. Chuck Lau for taking photos of my latest completed works! Check out his photography portfolio by visiting http://chucklau.smugmug.com/

Categories: abstract, acrylic, canvas, eye, fan, fans, geisha, gimp, moon, negatives

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New Painting – The Brain and Smoking, Part 2 [Secondhand Smoke]

The Brain Series

New Brain Painting: Brain Rhythm | 24"x24" | Acrylic on Stretched Canvas

Work in Progress Shots: Brain and Music, 24" x 24" Acrylic on Canvas

New Painting: Nap time!!

>WIP Brain Painting No.5 on the Brain and Sleep

WIP Brain Painting No.5 on the Brain and Sleep

New Painting: First Aid

Work In Progress Shots of "First Aid" 20" x 20" Acrylic on Stretched Canvas

New Painting: Moon Eye [tentative title]

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