Concentration #12

This piece is Color Blindness, specifically Protopia (middle) and Tritopia (bottom). There are three different kinds of cone cells in a normal human's eye, which absorb light of different colors, allowing the colors to be distinguished.  The three types of cones look very similar and in my painting are represented by the three rainbow cones. If a person is missing a type of cone, then he or she is colorblind. The middle row shows a type of color blindness that occurs when the cones that absorb red light are missing (person cannot see red). The color scheme for these cones shows how a person with this type of color blindness (Protopia) would see the rainbow cones of the top row. The bottom row depicts a type of color blindness in which the cones that absorb blue light are missing (person cannot see blue). The color scheme for these cones shows how a person with Tritopia would see the rainbow cones. The black sharpie designs pick up some of the shapes from inside the cones. These patterns are inspired by the color blindness tests that are made of little tiny circles.
I plan to take another picture because for some reason the edges of this one are blurry.

Concentration #11

This painting depicts Familial Hypercholesterolemia, or FH for short.  This week I decided to make the cholesterol molecules the primary focus.  So I super-magnified the spheres made up of cholesterol and other molecules.  The orange spheres are coming apart, which is healthy because it means the cells are breaking down the bad cholesterol.  However, if a person has FH, then they do not break down the cholesterol, which is seen in the solid blue and green sphere.  The almost white overlaid images are the cell membranes.  The bottom two are healthy because the extensions (LDL receptor proteins) coming out of the little dips in the cell membranes (coated pits) are able to grab the cholesterol spheres (LDL) and pull them into the cell to be broken down.  However, in the top cell membrane the receptors are not in the appropriate spot, so the cholesterol does not get pulled into the cell and does not get broken down, causing many problems in the body.  I am happy with the way this one turned out.  I like the high contrast, the large size of the molecules, and the clean lines of the cell membranes.