This next study may seem very different to my topic of function, however, it was valuable in order for me to develop my pelvis oil pastel drawing which explored fertility.
I was inspired by the artist Fred Hatt and his vibrant continuous line drawings of the human form.
Even though I wasn’t going to draw a body like this to explore function, I really like the way he has shown the colour of flesh through mixing a variety of colours. We tend to assume something is one colour purely but actually, everything is made up of a mixture of this colour here and there to create a detailed form.
I used this idea to create some continuous line fruit drawings, however because the pastels were soft and chalky, the lines just smudged and don’t really resemble the artist.
In order to save this study, I wanted to find an artist who makes their simple colour shapes stand out. I found an artist named Stina Persson who creates artwork using bold black lines and brush strokes of colour.
By adding the bold lines, the drawings were lifted in detail and create valuable form and structure for the fruit to stand out.
How does fruit relate to function?
As I was thinking of ways to develop my pelvis study (previous), I wanted to take an alternative angle to function by looking at symbolism. I wanted to see if mythology around fertility and fruit had any scientific links around improving function.
The 2 contrasting articles/blogs I looked at listed a number of fruits and how they were related to fertility. In the mythology article, it named and explained why fruits like pomegranates, apples and plums were symbolised as being related to fertility. n the mythology, t said that pomegranate was a symbol of abundance because of its many seeds and the idea that one fruit could become so much more. However, by the definition of a fruit ‘the sweet and fleshy product of a tree or other plant that contains seed and can be eaten as food’, the pomegranate symbolism can be applied to all fruits, which could be the reason why all fruit can be a symbol of fertility.
Whereas, in the scientific article, it listed a number of fruits and what they contributed to boosting fertility.
What I found most interesting was that the majority of fruits in the scientific article featured in the mythology article and vice versa. These fruits included apples, pears, strawberries, plums, peaches, grapes, figs and pomegranates. Perhaps the reason why certain fruits symbolised fertility, was actually because they worked in boosting fertility through the beneficial vitamins and antioxidants they contained, they just didn’t know it!
This relates to function because scientifically speaking, the vitamins and minerals found in fruit can benefit the necessary functions for conceiving and during the fetal development eg. regular ovulation, healthy uterine lining and protecting against birth defects in the brain and spine.
These are the links to the articles I read:
Viktoria Collins UAL FMP 