Gallery of cells

From "The gallery of cells"

Back in my college days, I spent a stint studying nerve cells of obscure snails. As I recall, I spent most of my time making and breaking glass micro-electrodes. I remain seduced by the miniature universe one sees peering at cells under a microscope. Highly magnified images can be at once realistic and abstract, organic and geometric. The repetition alone is pleasing.

These prints of collages from Jenn Ski have lovely composition--I'm really digging the asymmetry and the yellow-on-yellow cutouts. The idea, however, seems like it would be easy enough to try myself with some nice craft paper.


Prints available from Jenn's Etsy shop


Later note:
Here is my study of the original cell collage that I tried tonight, using card stock, construction paper, and bit
s and pieces from an issue of the New Yorker. I gained an appreciation for the tension between producing the appearance of randomness and a pleasing composition. I also like the cropping technique--pasting it all up, then cutting off the edges so it it has the look of a photograph.

I decided to use a float frame for display to evoke the slides one uses for plating cells under a microscope. After putting it together, I felt it still lacked balance, so I cut out the extra hole that just lets the light shine through the glass. I quite like the true negative space element of the collage--and this effect is not one that I've seen over and over.