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This next post shows a snippit for an intresting article called the chemistry of life i found the other day. This is what i base my artwork around and is the foundation for my concept ( that no matter what the outside looks like we are all made the same) and my work. within my work i tend to try to stick to the materials below to make my work.

Below are the elements that make us who we are and the uses within the human body.

A normal diet consists of thousands of compounds (some containing trace elements) whose effects are the study of ongoing research. For now, we can only say for certain what 20 or so elements are doing. Here is a quick rundown, with the percentage of body weight in parentheses.

Oxygen (65%) and hydrogen (10%) are predominantly found in water, which makes up about 60 percent of the body by weight. It’s practically impossible to imagine life without water.

Carbon (18%) is synonymous with life. Its central role is due to the fact that it has four bonding sites that allow for the building of long, complex chains of molecules. Moreover, carbon bonds can be formed and broken with a modest amount of energy, allowing for the dynamic organic chemistry that goes on in our cells.

Nitrogen (3%) is found in many organic molecules, including the amino acids that make up proteins, and the nucleic acids that make up DNA.

Calcium (1.5%) is the most common mineral in the human body — nearly all of it found in bones and teeth. Ironically, calcium’s most important role is in bodily functions, such as muscle contraction and protein regulation. In fact, the body will actually pull calcium from bones (causing problems like osteoporosis) if there’s not enough of the element in a person’s diet.

Phosphorus (1%) is found predominantly in bone but also in the molecule ATP, which provides energy in cells for driving chemical reactions.

Potassium (0.25%) is an important electrolyte (meaning it carries a charge in solution). It helps regulate the heartbeat and is vital for electrical signaling in nerves.

Sulfur (0.25%) is found in two amino acids that are important for giving proteins their shape.

Sodium (0.15%) is another electrolyte that is vital for electrical signaling in nerves. It also regulates the amount of water in the body.

Chlorine (0.15%) is usually found in the body as a negative ion, called chloride. This electrolyte is important for maintaining a normal balance of fluids.

Magnesium (0.05%) plays an important role in the structure of the skeleton and muscles. It also is necessary in more than 300 essential metabolic reactions.

Iron (0.006%) is a key element in the metabolism of almost all living organisms. It is also found in hemoglobin, which is the oxygen carrier in red blood cells. Half of women don’t get enough iron in their diet.

Fluorine (0.0037%) is found in teeth and bones. Outside of preventing tooth decay, it does not appear to have any importance to bodily health.

Zinc (0.0032%) is an essential trace element for all forms of life. Several proteins contain structures called “zinc fingers” help to regulate genes. Zinc deficiency has been known to lead to dwarfism in developing countries.

Copper (0.0001%) is important as an electron donor in various biological reactions. Without enough copper, iron won’t work properly in the body.

Iodine (0.000016%) is required for making of thyroid hormones, which regulate metabolic rate and other cellular functions. Iodine deficiency, which can lead to goiter and brain damage, is an important health problem throughout much of the world.

Selenium (0.000019%) is essential for certain enzymes, including several anti-oxidants. Unlike animals, plants do not appear to require selenium for survival, but they do absorb it, so there are several cases of selenium poisoning from eating plants grown in selenium-rich soils.

Chromium (0.0000024%) helps regulate sugar levels by interacting with insulin, but the exact mechanism is still not completely understood.

Manganese (0.000017%) is essential for certain enzymes, in particular those that protect mitochondria — the place where usable energy is generated inside cells — from dangerous oxidants.

Molybdenum (0.000013%) is essential to virtually all life forms. In humans, it is important for transforming sulfur into a usable form. In nitrogen-fixing bacteria, it is important for transforming nitrogen into a usable form.

Cobalt (0.0000021%) is contained in vitamin B12, which is important in protein formation and DNA regulation.

(http://www.livescience.com/3505-chemistry-life-hum…)

Brian Matthew Hart

Hart creates light paintings using pin lights and a long exposure shot.

i love the work he creates depicting fingerprints as they are very skilled, with the fact its compleatly dark when your creating them so you dont know untill you develop the picture weather you have actually done the piece correctly.

Joseph Marr

Joseph Marr has created a series of beautiful sculptures made entirely out of sugar. Employing a variety of traditional and digital techniques, Marr aims to create sensual works that bridge the gap between classical and contemporary art. Many of his sculptures include liquids like Cola and Fanta as well as flavorings like apple, lemon, and raspberry. Speaking about the project Marr says, “Any desire at all is the reason why our soul is trapped in the karmic lessons of our Ego. Candy is a wonderful medium to show two things…how we are trapped in the sticky situation and how attractive the tasty desire really is.

I love the transpancy of his work and the way the light shimmers and reflects against the surface of the sugar, i also like the way the process captures the bubbles and imperfections caught within the making of the sculptures.

Antony Gormley

Another artist that has influanced me heavily with his use of sculpture and the human figure.

Gormley creates striking sculptures, mainly out of metal from, casts of himself and is most famous for his public sculpture “angel of the north”.

Gormley describes his work as “an attempt to materialise the place at the other side of appearance where we all live.”

His work attempts to treat the body not as an object but a place and in making works that enclose the space of a particular body to identify a condition common to all human beings. The work is not symbolic but indexical – a trace of a real event of a real body in time.

What i really love about Gormleys work is the fact he doesnt try to preserve the work once its built, he doesnt coat the metal or resore the peices every few years. he lets every mark stand out and lets the weather and nature take its course, transforming the sculpture over the years.

Right, through the next few posts im going to give you a bit of an insight into the artists that have influenced me and my work.

Gunther Von Hagen’s

A scientist rather than an artist, but his work still has an artistic quality to it in the way he portrays his “subjects.”

Hagen’s developed a technique called “plasticization”, to put it simply it is where you take all of the water out of a dead specimen and replace it with a liquid polymer using the density rule (where with two cells, if one is full and the other empty the liquid will move to create an equal density over both cells) .

The liquid polymer is then hardened under a uv light creating a specimen that is preserved indefinitely, and yet the skin muscles and flesh behaves as if it were alive.

But Hagen’s took this to another level, he started using human bodies that had been donated to him by the owner, and stripping back the flesh skin and bones, creating scientific exhibitions teaching the public about the human autonomy in a way never done before.

Now here’s my problem with it, he calls himself a scientist but if you look at his work and the way he portrays the specimens it is more like an art piece, playing poker, having sex, sitting on a swing, are not ways you would portray a scientific specimen.

He has influenced my work through my interest of science and the human body, the way it moves, acts, reacts and copes with everyday life.

an interesting insight into the thoughts and work behind hagens work