Stanton Fernald

Art and science have always gone hand-in-hand. One only needs to think of polymaths as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo to see how the deliberate exactitude of one form works so beautifully with the creative freedom of the other. It is using both sides of one brain, so to speak, that artist Stanton Fernald brings to the fore.

An industrial designer by trade, Fernald is also a medical textbook designer and illustrator at the University of Kansas Medical Center. He brings both fine art and industrial design together with the creation of installations incorporating hand-crafted projectors. Assembled from optical glass, wood, plastic, steel and the occasional World War II bomber gun sight parts, they give the impression of an apparatus straight out of Jules Verne. He will frequently enlarge something from nature, like a leaf, to show viewers the architecturally concise beauty that comes from an organic form.

Projects like this can take months to prepare. The engineering challenges require breaking it down to the most essential elements. Externally, they have an antiquarian feel; inside, however, they are totally high-tech. Not only fun to behold, these projectors possess a real functionality!

The cathartic relationship his visual art engenders is therapeutic. The creative process has always been his personal escape. He says, "For the emotional release, a good idea will haunt me and I will obsess on it until I do something about it."

Fernald's approach is to dive right in. He seldom has an accurate account of what the results will be or knowing where to begin. This leaves a lot of room for discovery and says, "On the other hand, when I am in a situation where one of my ideas is a little further along I snap into a researcher mode to test and probe the concept or idea to see where it will break down."

The genesis of Fernald's work is the relationship he forges between art and science. "Whether it is industrial design, visual art or medical illustration" he says, "the successful endeavors that had an impact on the public (are) the connections between these disciplines."

Finding the time to explore exhibition ideas is difficult even though his industrial design and freelance medical illustration brings in income. Fernald is currently balancing a day job, outside work along with fatherhood. Probably the most complex machinery he has to deal with is his 17-month old son, leaving little time for exhibition work.

Currently, two steady freelance medical illustration projects involve physical therapy. These are mostly skeletal/muscular type illustrations for informing and educating patients with published results to come at a later date.

The industrial design side of things is also ramping up. He is working on a range of products right now varying from small compacts, as in make-up cases, to an accessory for DSLR cameras and one project in the apparel industry. He is unable to really say any more about those because of confidentiality agreements dealing with un-patented materials. He works primarily with inventors. If the idea is good and he believes it has a market, Fernald will invest his skills and the time to develop it towards fruition.

While the steps for doing so are incremental, Fernald is looking to create more public art. As he applies to these public art calls, it is more important to him that each project gives him more experience that puts him further along in the review process. One of his projection systems is now installed at Union Colony Civic Center in Greeley, Colorado. And he is shortlisted for one at the Wishard Health Services Center, currently being built in Indianapolis, Indiana. A medical research and hospital complex looking for science-related art, this is a nice fit for Fernald. As a larger budgeted commission, he gets to work on a larger scale. When built sometime in 2011, he will be contacted to design and propose artwork for the space. The original request for entry was found on Call For Entry, a site he recommends to artists looking for such projects around the United States.

Combining his love of science with art processes, he has taught some students in basics of microscopy at the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) Some of his colleagues at KU Medical Center have donated old microscopes to KCAI and he has gone there several times showing students how they can be used to creative effect. Over time, he hopes more students will be interested in this kind of science.

In the coming year, Fernald hopes to double his industrial design business. His projection designs have for public art gigs are already on judges' radars, and if all goes well, create new exhibition work that takes a new direction.

Stanton is a Spring 2009 Artist INC Fellow.

Visit Stanton Fernald's website.

Written by Blair Schulman, 2010