In Memory

I was deeply saddened by the events of Sunday 14th December at Bondi Beach, Sydney.

While I try to refrain from making political or religious posts, after the events of this week I felt compelled to say something about the confronting hatred being normalised and witnessed in the community.

I was reminded back to a piece I had started in 2020 which was not completed.

This unfinished illustration was about the power of art as an act of pacifism that anyone can participate in. While we can’t always find peace in the world, we can choose to participate in a peaceful act of expression of our humanity.

Star of David [Unfinished], 2020

20 Years of Art

Last year went by in a blink and I hadn’t one moment to make one single piece of art. I have been completing my psychology and clinical neuroscience training and I finally became a fully registered Psychologist in May. I thought to myself, what a great time this would be to dig up old stuff.

It was the 20 year Anniversary for this one, and so I thought, what a great time this would be to have another look. It also happened to be, 20 years of never having been able to afford an art canvas. I could only laugh.

Red and Gold Woman Painting

Red and Gold Woman, 2002

Well, whatever the case, I guess that comes with a territory for Artists.

Et voilà - Here it is. 20 years old.

_ . - : ~` ′ * * ~ . . - ° ° ` - : . - . .

Animation: displayed at ‘Digitas’ exhibit — M16 Artspace, Canberra. 2019

Illustration: Keely Van Order , video snippet of animation made with Russell Kightley

Animation from artwork series of Isomorphic Transformations, also receiving the “E.G. Harvey Award for Australian

Speculative Fiction Art” — Conflux Speculative Fiction Conference: A.C.T. Australia, October 2018

~ * ° R e c o n c i l i a t i o n ° * ~

This week I made a series of artworks to commemorate National Reconciliation Week 2020 in Australia.

There was a call out for art entries on the theme ‘In This Together’ at the University of Melbourne to honour the occasion. I was very happy for the opportunity to contribute to this initiative.


Here is my entry:

‘One’

May 2020, Melbourne

“This is one piece from a series I have made to commemorate National Reconciliation Week 2020. It is recycled art from an aquatint I made in 2010. I was inspired by the Dreamtime and the visual musical language of circles and dot art as a traditional Aboriginal expression of spirit and country, water and the land. Many layers communicate the many steps that have been taken by the community together. I wanted to convey intricate interweaving colours overlapping and revealing through one another, like a night sky that also became the morning sky when seen from its inverted angle.

This piece may be viewed and displayed from all sides.”

Selected works will be announced mid-May and a public display with a virtual gallery launched in June.

Link to the virtual display here.

[28/05/2020]

Neural Imaging

The most noticeably exciting thing I have done in 2019 is probably, using a microscope for neural imaging.

Here’s a photograph taken from my research thesis, Alcohol Induced Neural Correlates in Female Calorie Restricted Rats, showing the Nucleus Accumbens Shell (NAcSH) — a key brain region for reward and addictive processes, where response to alcohol can be seen here, indicated by Fos-positive black nuclei.

This research, which was supervised by Dr. Helen Nasser at The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health showed that females responded differently from males, highlighting the need to consider female risk-factors to addiction which may have been historically overlooked. Photographs were taken with a Nikon Eclipse Ti2 Microscope at 10x magnification using Nikon Elements and Adobe Photoship CC software (for this image), based on our tissue segments which we coronally sliced at 40 μm thickness and prepared with immunohistochemistry.

“Grace 1”

“Grace 1”

The image has been on display at the Under the Coverslip neuroscience and anatomy show at the University of Melbourne Medical Building. The exhibit will also be back on display in 2020.

Thank you!

Art Show 'Digitas' Opening night — M16 Artspace

You’re Invited !

Digitas Invitation - M16 - Keely Van Order.jpg

I’ll be in Canberra for the opening night of my art show, ‘Digitas’ at the M16 .

The invitation is open and everyone is welcome — the more the merrier!

I’ve been working with the talented minds of curator Frances Spurgin and science illustrator Russell Kightley to get the show up and running. I will also be opening a sales page for prints on my website on the same day, with links to the works on display, for those who aren’t in the area.

Meet with other artists and interesting people in the community too.

And, there will be food and drinks.

Hope to see you there!


K