“Fortnight is a non-profit, multimedia online project that documents promising members of the “millennial generation.” By featuring 14 contributors each edition from 14 distinct disciplines, Fortnight showcases young people who will define the ideas of tomorrow. In doing so, we document an important shift: Millennials are the first generation to grow up with the Internet, yet will be the last to recall a time when it did not exist.”
Jared, an extremely talented medical illustrator, chose to feature Street Anatomy and what we do as one of his contributions for the current edition of Fortnight. We are extremely honored!
In the interview, you’ll get a deeper insight into the background of Street Anatomy, why it was started and where it might be headed in the future.
So, I realize that this was posted last year and I’m only now seeing it and it’s not totally art related, but I have to say, HOLY ORGAN PRINTING BATMAN, this is totally fascinating! Of course, I’m seeing this only weeks after seeing the film Never Let Me Go (it’s a good one, heavy stuff), and I have to say, after seeing this amazing Ted Talk, it doesn’t seem like we are that far off from having some real working solutions to organ growing (printing!?) and replacement. The organ printer is by far the most bizarre and amazing thing Atala talks about, and when you say it out loud it sounds impossible and fantastical, but it’s well underway. Who knows, if I’m lucky I’ll see the working solution realized in my lifetime (just in time to need one such organ?). This is definitely something I would love to keep an eye on and read more about, hurray for science and technology!!!!
SkullXbones 24"x24" spray paint on warped/textured wood. Available at the Street Anatomy store
We’re proud to announce that one of Chicago’s most prominent street artists, Saro, is teaming up with Street Anatomy to sell some of his anatomically themed street art. We caught up with Saro while he was preparing for the big Chicago Street Art Show at the Chicago Urban Art Society, opening May 13th.
Q Lets start the the basics. Where you from? How many years have you been doing street art?
I am from here in Chicago and born at Illinois Masonic. I’ve been doing some type of street art since…I dunno, 1998, but really didn’t get down to biz until 2004.
Q What’s with the name Saro?
I’m so sad! Haha no, I dunno really. I could lie like I’ve done in other interviews, but the truth is when I needed an alias, I was just starting out and I wasn’t really doing enough stuff on the street to really need a steady name…so me and my buddy would get drunk at my place, we’d sketch/write. I wrote a song that he was supposed to sing while I attempted to play guitar…but we got too drunk. I woke up in the morning and noticed that not only did I spell sorrow wrong but I stopped writing mid word…saro. I thought it looked cool. SO…..after that I went around tagging and doing hand drawn stickers.
Q What possessed you to start putting anatomy into your work?
I never realized I used it so much until you hit me up on Flickr, haha!
I was living with gramma and she’s super religious…and I am not. She’d always come downstairs and I’d have metal music blastin or watchin horror movies and she’d mumble a lil prayer and leave. It got to a point where I was tryin to make some stencils that would make her un-easy. So I cut some zombies, some skulls, bats, broken rib cages and whatever and she comes down and sees them and she ends up liking them and telling me how in some religions skulls and bones are “good luck” and remind people of the lost loved ones and all this stuff! So it didn’t quite work out, but since I enjoyed anatomy and horror stuff anyhow, it was all good. But skulls, bones, and other severed body parts fit well with my horror/macabre theme. I love it.
Q What kind of references do you use, if any, to do your anatomical works?
Well Flickr is awesome for thieving images. We also have a couple anatomy books here that help out with my quest. Google on the occasion that Flickr is being a bastard.
Q How have people responded to the anatomical street art compared to your other stuff?
LOVE EM. The skull and cross bones, cyclops skull, vulture x-ray are the biggest sellers. The cyclops skull is dear to me because…I dunno, its awesome and the original photo comes from the Mutter museum that I desperately want to go see.
Untitled blue 12"x11" on 1" thick wood. Available at the Street Anatomy store
Q How did the cyclops skulls come about?
Honestly? The Murder City Devils. Thats my favorite band. They have a song called Midnight Service at the Mutter Museum. I was workin on my next image one night while my girl was sleeping, so I had my headphones on and that song popped up. I googled the Mutter Museum. Knew it was gonna be awesome, but ended up seeing this pic of this cyclops skull. It wasn’t stealable or too small. So…off to Flickr! I searched Flickr for people that have visited. Found a really cool pic of the same skull from the site, hit up the person to fork over the largest size of it. Then, since i suck at Photoshop, it took me forever and a day to get it right but eventually came out the way I wanted.
Q You have a big presence on the Chicago Street Art group on Flickr. Do you think that’s helped the spread of your work and your name? Ever have a fear of being caught through sites like that?
Flickr has definitely helped me spread my work, market and sell stuff. I used it as a online portfolio before artbysaro.com. As far as fearing the law aspect of it, since there is a disclaimer on the Flickr profile that there are no pics of me in the act or of my face or anything like that, any accusation against me would have to be tossed out do to lack of evidence and just a coincidence. Plus I have a FANTASTIC lawyer in the family.
Buzzard anatomy 21.5"x14.5" on primed plywood. Available at the Street Anatomy store.
Q How would you describe the Chicago street art community?
Stagnant. There’s people getting up that shouldn’t and the other way around. Great stuff like CLS, Choke, and Stomach are ridiculously hard to come by whereas people are tripping over the amount of bla shit like blaggo stencils, goon ripoffs, and stuff. But the good thing about that is since the street art community is hibernating, the graff heads are pickin up the slack.
Q What can we expect from you at the upcoming Chicago Urban Art Society show?
Well, I was requested to do some remakes of old favs like my horror stencils and stuff like that. But I was also given my own wall to do whatever, so…I’m doing something outside the norm…well my norm. Bigger stuff. Should be sick!
Q And finally…what’s next for Saro?
Well, after the CUAS show opens on the 13th this month, there’s an AMAZING show at OhNo! DOOM! in June that I’m involved with that’s gonna be the highlight of the summer…for me at least. Then after that it’s back to installing more boards, boards, boards, and maybe some large paste ups that people would be surprised to see me do. Some definite Street Anatomy ensues…
If you’re in Chicago, don’t miss the opening of the huge Chicago Street Art Show at the Chicago Urban Art Society on May 13th. Part of the Street Anatomy crew will be there!
Jason Freeny is making anatomy cool in ways no one else has done and his formula is simple: carefully dissect an iconic childhood toy, build in the underlying anatomy, and then display it to the wonder of children and adults everywhere.
I caught up with Jason, in between chasing his two-year-old around, and was able to get his thoughts on anatomy, the popularity of his work, self-promotion, and more.
QMedical illustrators covet great anatomical references. What anatomical references, if any, do you use when you begin to dissect a toy?
First off please let me say that my anatomical toy sculpts and illustrations cover the most basic of anatomical elements. While medical illustrations are targeted toward the medical industry for the most part, my work is aimed at a broader, more mainstream, less anatomically savvy audience.
With that said, I use whatever references I can get a hold of. The local bookstore is my destination of choice when it comes to finding reference. My children’s anatomy books are great. There are some fantastic books out there aimed at teaching the laymen about anatomy with very detailed color plates. The Internet is another fine place to find reference, especially for animals other than humans. Some of my work approaches animals that either don’t exist or are mutated to the point where traditional anatomy won’t suffice. Some anatomies are a fusion of several different mammals.
Q You definitely make anatomy more attractive and digestible for the layperson. Would you ever consider taking it a step further and doing your own children’s anatomy book?
One thing I know about myself is my limitations. I’ve never felt stories or character development was a strong trait. This could change in the future. I can’t tell you how many artists I’ve seen try to move too far outside their element and just make themselves look bad. Actors trying to be singers etc… I have a pretty good feel for what I am good at and what I am not so good at…
Q During the Street Anatomy gallery show I observed a father and his 9- year-old daughter looking at your pieces titled, Micro Schematic and Kitty Half. The father was reminiscing about his childhood playing with Lego’s and the daughter was thrilled over the cuteness of the Hello Kitty, despite half its skeleton and guts showing. Why do you think you’ve managed to capture the imaginations of people across many generations simply by exposing anatomical features?
This is always the most difficult question I get asked. I’ll answer it as best as I can. It’s not a simple answer…One I don’t believe I’ve figured out…
For the father, it’s perhaps being hit with the possibility that all those toys, characters, and imaginary friends from their youth could have quite possibly been real. And for a few moments, all the imagination and fantasy abandoned yearsago come gushing back.
For the child, it’s being introduced to a new dimension to these characters. Perhaps solidifying their reality. One thing I have never seen in a child’s reaction is fear. It’s always amazement, wonder, and wanting to explore the image. Fear of anatomy and guts is a learned reaction. It’s always the parents who are uneasy. Uneasy about how a child will react, then, seem shocked when they aren’t frightened, but instead are excited.
I don’t see my work as true medical illustration, with respect to actual medical illustrators, it’s more of a novelty. There is no truth behind my work, my anatomies are hypothetical, this is strictly art.
All my promotions are based on viral word of mouth. Hence, my stance on sharing. I let the collective voice of the Internet decide its worth. Some pieces go up and the response is tremendous, sometimes I just get the sounds of crickets. This method works for me and I have no idea how it would work for others. Since I work with a lot of popular characters, people relate to it pretty easily. Not sure how it would go with someone’s still life’s of “fruit in a bowl.”
My work has become pretty embedded throughout the web and even if credit is not given, it’s pretty obvious it’s mine. I’m not all that much a stickler for policing blogs and such with my work. There are a lot of good people out there that do it for me. I love my fans and wouldn’t be where I am without them. I guess the only thing that offends me is when a site takes my image and puts their own watermark on it, it’s just rude. As long as no one is directly profiting off one of my images I don’t have any problems with it. The more eyes that see it the better
Q Have you run into any copyright or licensing issues with the toy characters you’ve dissected? Have any of the toy companies approached you to create a line of dissected toys after seeing the response to any of the sculpts you created?
I have yet to be approached by any of the IP holders of any of the sculpts. I have been approached from some of the IP holders from my illustrations. I’ve only had copyright issues from the illustrations solely because I offer prints. There is nothing wrong with creating any of the sculpts or images I have done. The problems arise when I begin to mass produce and sell.
So far the IP holders that have contacted me have been very kind. They see the art in what I do and as long as I limit my production to a small amount they don’t have issue. They legally have the right to keep me from selling anything more than one. Like I said, they have been VERY kind.
Q What’s next for Jason Freeny? Even if you were to stop doing dissections of iconic toys, will anatomy still be a part of your work?
I’m always looking for new things to create. A time will come when something else will come up and I’ll move on, but I’m sure anatomy will always pop up and make another appearance. Perhaps in another form…
Argosy Publishing has made a dream come true for students and teachers wanting an easy to use, high quality, 3D interactive anatomy atlas. And the best part of all? It’s absolutely free.
Other 3D atlases like A.D.A.M’s Interactive Anatomy ($695) and Primal Pictures’ Complete Online Human Anatomy Series ($660) don’t offer the flexibility of real time manipulation of their 3D models. The Visible Bodyallows you to seamlessly zoom in and out, rotate in any direction, and go directly into the body just by using your mouse. You can also add and delete systems, make systems transparent, and isolate specific structures. And to top it all off they created a very clean and simple user interface.
I had the opportunity to interview the CEO of Argosy Publishing, Andrew Bowditch, on the development, motivation behind, and future of the Visible Body.
How long did it take to complete the Visible Body?
This has been a five to six year project. We started by building models of various anatomical structures that we could then use to create animations for our clients. About two and a half years ago, we began to put the models all together and fill in the gaps. A huge challenge was to create the programming and user interface so that people could use the Visible Body as a whole and online. I wouldn’t say it is ‘complete’ — we have lots of ideas that we are working on to continually improve on it. But we felt that it is already a very useful tool, and that’s why we decided to release it publicly now.
Is there a team dedicated to completing the Visible Body or do your employees work on it alongside other projects?
We have a core team that is mostly dedicated to Visible, but occasionally some of them work on other things to help pay our bills. But it took an enormous amount of effort and dedication to get Visible Body to where it is now — definitely not a part time side project.
Currently the Visible Body can only be viewed on Internet Explorer on Windows, when can we expect to see the Visible Body across all platforms?
We are about to start working on a Mac version of the Visible Body. It is hard to say how long this will take, because it is going to require a whole new round of intensive programming, and we know from experience that it takes a lot of innovation, hard work, and trial and error to get such a complex program on the web. That being said, we want everybody to be able to use the Visible Body, and that includes everyone who can’t now due to platform incompatibility. We are dedicated to ultimately making this product platform-neutral.
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