“Carbon-Carbon Triple Bond” is another of my personal badge pieces. This piece was purchased from our “Must Love Art” Exhibition and is now a part of the permanent collection of the School of Global Environmental Sustainability at Colorado State University.
“Carbon-Carbon Triple Bond”, 5 x 5 inches, mini textile painting (vintage fabrics, stitching) © Ayn Hanna
The inspiration for this piece comes from my early school years when I was sure I wanted to be a medical Dr. and consequently chose biomedical microbiology as my college major, which meant I took a lot of math, biology, and chemistry classes back then.
I’ve always liked learning and understanding new things. Chemistry was a challenge (and organic chemistry especially so) because I didn’t understand the “why” behind my need to know things like how many SP3 hybridized orbitals there are on a carbon-carbon triple bond. I had no context for how knowing that piece of information was going to make me a better Dr. and help me provide good medical service to a patient.
Making Art gave me the purpose I needed for understanding Chemistry
During my Junior year of College, I was finally no longer able to deny the artist within. I walked out of my bio chem class and headed straight for the Visual Art building and 6 years later had earned both my BFA and MFA degrees.
As a printmaker, I found some initial connections between Art and Chemistry and it felt good to finally have some practical application and context for knowing about acids and alkalies and understanding the periodic table. (Printmakers can pull off being geeky artist types.)
But, working with textiles and dyes – particularly once finding eco-dyeing and eco-printing – NOW I understand! Organic plant materials, earth oxides, the PH (acidity or alkalinity) of water and various mordants and modifiers, the use of metals like iron and copper….oh my, eco-dyeing is the perfect laboratory for learning about organic chemisty! Organic chemistry can actually be….dare I say it – FUN!
various colors and marks achieved using natural plants to dye and print fabric
If you would like to have some fun learning about natural plant dyes, eco-printing and yes, organic chemistry, (and who wouldn’t?) there are a few spaces left in the Eco-Dyeing playshop I’ll be teaching on Oct. 18-19 here at my studio in Fort Collins. All the details are available here.
It’s Art, it’s Science, and it’s Fun! Come play!
oh, my pet peeve is those who don’t care and don’t want to learn about WHY what we do does what it does!!! it’s like knowing nothing about art history, or art itself, if you consider yourself an artist–i couldn’t do it without the science, even if it’s only the basics!
I know, from the very first time I opened a bundle and saw the resulting prints and colors, I just had to find out, how and WHY this is happening – it’s important to me too to learn about the “why”.