I utilized the water, brush, twig, and black ink method Professor Rivera taught us during the first portion of class. I wanted to represent the way in which microscopic pores form in tissue sections affected by prions, causing the tissue sections to take on a porous, spongy texture. With my rather limited artistic skills and knowledge, I wanted to establish a sense of infectiousness and malevolence that the prions bring as they affect the tissue. Coincidentally, the black hue of the ink against the contrasting white paper worked really well to create this bleak, venomous effect.
I liked Professor Rivera’s method of brushing water on the paper first and dropping tiny bits of the black ink onto the wet paper. this created a nice effect of infectious black pores gradually emanating throughout the tissue. Then, I used the twig to spread out the ink that hadn’t completely dried yet to make thinner and sharper strokes of black ink spreading throughout the tissue. Lastly (and I hope this doesn’t count as cheating), I used the brush that I had been using, which had been a bit blacked by the black ink, and made round strokes toward the outer edges of the paper. I wanted to incorporate Professor Rivera’s later comments about how to create a three-dimensional effect in a two-dimensional space. I was aiming for the outer edges to seem closer and for the round space in the center to seem farther away.
As the prion propagates by transmitting misfolded protein forms, it infects by turning normally folded proteins (PrPc) into the misfolded form (PrPsc). A domino effect ensues as more and more normally folded proteins convert into the disease-associated form, until they reach a state of cell death and tissue destruction. I wanted to portray this unstoppable and viral effect of the prion spreading throughout the tissue.