Initial Ideas for Final Project

 

I'm still developing my idea, but I think I want to create a series of works based on the idea of medical racism. This is something I've explored a little in the past, but found too depressing; I think I'm up for the task now. I think I want to make a leather-bound book with digital painting/drawing reminiscent of medical artwork.

I'm considering whether I want to include any text in the margins, but if I do, I'll probably use pen and ink. I think the collage will be a physical collage which I'll draw on top of, possibly with white ink if I can get some in time, or pencil or paint markers (I think I have some white ones), I also could just do white acrylic paint on it. 

Themes I'm considering discussing are the false ideas that are still prevalent in medicine today, like black people feeling less pain or having thicker skin. I'm also considering representing the falsehoods in that vintage medical drawing style because both the lie and the art style come from the past. Other themes I'm considering are the spectacle and horror attached to medical racism through medical theatre and the stereotypes and assumptions related to medical practices and black people, also the idea of history repeating itself with rumors still being around today.

For a framing device, I think I want all of my artwork in a journal that is a documentation of the horror of medical racism, possibly from the point of view of a medical student. 

I have some ideas on how I can make the paper in the book look old. I might try using watercolor on the already printed paper, or ink. I've also decided how I want to bind my book: 

https://theboxgirl.wordpress.com/2015/02/20/teaching-oriental-binding/ 

However, most of my project now will likely be research and narrowing down specific events to create artwork in response to.