Monday, April 30, 2007

I'm sure that you've heard a lot about nanoart, but yesterday I read a very interesting article about a nanoart artist. Jan Kirstein, an art teacher at Western Hills High School, was one of 15 artists from four countries whose work was selected for the first International Festival of NanoArt in the Kotkan Valokuvakeskus Gallery in Finland. NanoArt is art that is created through chemical and physical processes using monochromatic images from microscopes. In other words, it's the technique that combines science and art together. Jan digitally painted and manipulated a microscope image, and incorporated a self-portrait to create the work. For all her purposes she used a home printer to print a 12-by-18-inch version of the piece to send to the gallery. Kirstein estimates it took her a week to complete her digital artwork. In her work she used the colors and water to symbolize ice melting and rain from global warming. Kirstein said her job as a teacher introduced her to digital art because of the use of computers in the classroom. She said she is working to get microscope images from her brother, to allow her students a chance to create similar art.