Artists' Blogs

Not That Kind of Dissection

By |September 2nd, 2014|Syndicated Content|

This is a medical-legal piece showing a dissection of the internal carotid artery. In this instance the word dissection does not refer to cutting something up to study.  Here it is a tearing away of the interior wall of the carotid artery due to a spontaneous or traumatic injury. While once considered uncommon, spontaneous dissection is now known […]Not That Kind of Dissection

Did You “Photoshop” That?

By |July 14th, 2014|Syndicated Content|

I’m often asked whether I draw by hand or use Photoshop. The answer is simply that I draw – sometimes on the computer and sometimes on paper. Photoshop is just another tool to put marks on paper, or in this case, pixels on the screen. I use a […]

The post Did You “Photoshop” That? appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

The Fairmanators Team Mission Brief

By |July 3rd, 2014|Syndicated Content|

2014 Vesalius Trust Foundation Live Auction The Fairmanators Mission Brief http://www.crowdrise.com/thefairmanators What: Competitive Treasure Hunt (Live! At the 2014 AMI Meeting) When: Saturday, July 26th@ 6:30pm – 8:15pm Where: Downtown Rochester, MN – The Plaza Dear Fellow Fairmanator: This year, the VT Live Auction will consist of a competitive treasure hunt! Teams will unlock clues […]

Archival, limited-edition prints

By |June 19th, 2014|Syndicated Content|

I'm offering signed, limited-edition giclée prints of the following pieces. I print on archival Canson Photographique rag 310/m2 paper. The sheets measure 22"x17". Editions of 20 with one artist proof. Please email me at bryan@bryanchristie.com for inquiries.



Archival, limited-edition prints
"Portraits"  2012


Archival, limited-edition prints
"In the center of the world"  2013


Archival, limited-edition prints
"Reclining man"  2013


Archival, limited-edition prints
"For Rumi"  2014


Archival, limited-edition prints
"The pushing away pulls you in"  2013


Archival, limited-edition prints
"Willem"  2013


Archival, limited-edition prints
"Every angel is terror"  2014


Archival, limited-edition prints
"Divine separation"  2013


Archival, limited-edition prints
"Permanence lost"  2014





A little less

By |June 18th, 2014|Syndicated Content|

I believe we've been seduced by the digital medium. It is easy in digital 3D to make things glow, be reflective and shiny. We use every color imaginable in our work. I would like to see more restraint in what we do. Here's an anatomical illustration of...

The usefulness of uselessness

By |June 18th, 2014|Syndicated Content|


The usefulness of uselessness

"All art is quite useless." 
Oscar Wilde 

In the late eighties and early nineties I was a student at La Guardia High School of the Arts. My life was devoted to music. Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins and Lester Young were my idols. At eighteen I began gigging with my quintet in small venues in New York City. I wrote music and played tenor saxophone with a passion; I would end a gig or practice session in physical pain and emotional exhaustion. 

Jazz clubs were dropping like flies. Swing and bebop had been a vital aspect of American culture. Yet the glory years of the thirties, forties and fifties, with places like NYC's 52nd street, didn't exist anymore. The music I was playing was disconnected from the times I was living in; I was rehashing a music that had died decades before. I was tired of pouring my heart into something that felt useless. I stopped playing. 

At twenty I began working at my father's illustration and animation studio, Slim Films. There I learned that illustration and information graphics serve a specific purpose and have a defined goal. It was a revelation to be doing something concretely useful. After a couple of years working as a freelance illustrator I took a job as an assistant art director at Scientific American magazine. The editors worked with a passion that was eye-opening—even as they were writing about the most obscure subjects, like a particle physics theory that had no perceived relevance in our daily lives. It was as if I were surrounded by artists and musicians. 

This reignited my desire to make music. I decided to leave Scientific American and go back to Manhattan School of Music, the conservatory I had dropped out of a few years earlier. I quickly learned that I didn't have what it would take to make it as a professional musician. It seemed as if the pinnacle of success was getting into the pit band of a Broadway show. The prospect of playing the same music day in and day out was a nightmare. At the time I was earning, and enjoying, a decent living as a freelance illustrator. Once again I stopped playing. 

Over the years I became relatively successful as an illustrator. Five years ago I began to hire people and transition from a freelance illustrator to the creative director of my own studio. Two and a half years ago we moved the studio from Maplewood, N.J., to New York City. 

I reentered the world of the useless; I decided to devote a significant part of my time and energy to creating fine art. Creating something that is of no use is an exercise in frustration. The other day I was complaining to an artist friend about this. Shaking his head he said, "People have no idea how hard this is. It's awful. Just awful." 

And then, a couple of weeks ago I downloaded an album from iTunes of Barry Harris and Charles Davis, two of the teachers I studied with years ago. At the first notes my knees buckled. Time stopped and joy welled in my heart. It didn't matter what year it was. It didn't matter that what I defined as jazz had died years ago. What mattered was that for this brief time it was alive and well in my studio as I listened and danced.

Sculpture, photography, and information graphics

By |June 18th, 2014|Syndicated Content|

As I was taking pictures over the weekend it occurred to me that the act of taking a photograph is reductive. The same is true for sculpting with marble.Look at these two images:Michelangelo used chisels and hammers to chip into the block of marble in ...

A visual definition of information graphics

By |June 18th, 2014|Syndicated Content|

Eighty-one professionals were asked to create a visual definition of information graphics for a book that was published by the Society of News Designers Español.

When I was asked to do this, I froze. Talk about a blank canvas staring you in the face. An information graphic about an information graphic. How meta! My initial ideas involved illustrating the process of going from complexity to simplicity. I considered taking a photo of downtown NYC and then creating a 3-D rendering of the same area with one building highlighted in blue. Lame. One thing my father taught me is to throw out the first idea you come up with; it's usually too simple or surface oriented.

I continued to agonize over the assignment. I felt more and more that the only way to define an information graphic was through words. What are words anyway but organized collections of letters? And what are letters but symbols composed of abstract lines and geometric shapes?

Here's what I came up with:


A visual definition of information graphics






















After the judging at Malofiej20 I'm not sure I would say that an information graphic must have annotations or words though. There was an entry by National Geographic that was a reconstruction of a primitive man's face. The general consensus was that it wasn't an information graphic. I argued that it was— it was a visual that informed the reader of a possible facial structure of our ancestors. I said that there was a science to these reconstructions. Someone then said that they would feel it was an information graphic if it was annotated. At the time I agreed. I've since changed my mind. In hindsight I wish I had stuck to my guns on this one.

To prove my point, this is my favorite information graphic:

A visual definition of information graphics






















It's a color wheel developed by Johannes Itten. I use it all the time. Complementary colors are opposite one another. It shows how the primary colors mix to make the secondary and tertiary colors. It's informative and extremely useful.

Constipation in Children

By |June 18th, 2014|Syndicated Content|

This editorial illustration was created for a July 2014 cover of American Family Physician. The image summarizes Constipation in Children. Childhood constipation is common and almost always functional without an organic etiology. Stool retention can lead to fecal incontinence in some patients. Often, a medical history and physical examination are sufficient to diagnose functional constipation. […]

Severe Osteoarthritis of the Knee

By |June 11th, 2014|Syndicated Content|

Arthritis is an inflammation of joints. Osteoarthritis (OA) is divided into stages. The highest stage, 4, is assigned to severe OA. OA that has become this advanced is likely causing significant pain and disruption to joint movement.

The post Severe Osteoarthritis of the Knee appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

Hiatal Hernia Graft

By |May 3rd, 2014|Syndicated Content|

The hiatus is an opening in the diaphragm (the muscular wall separating the chest cavity from the abdomen). Typically, the esophagus goes through the hiatus and attaches to the stomach. In a hiatal hernia the stomach bulges up into the chest through that opening. This illustration depicts a hernia […]

The post Hiatal Hernia Graft appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

Opening reception for Transmutation

By |April 29th, 2014|Syndicated Content|


Opening reception for Transmutation

I'm hosting a three-person show at my studio. I'm showing with two other wonderful artists: Linda Serrone Rolon and Alkan Nallbani. The opening is on Thursday, May 8th, from 6 to 10pm. If you're in the NYC area, please come by!

The show will be up through Saturday, May 10th. 11am-6pm.

Press release:

TRANSMUTATION

Please Join Us Thursday, May 8, 6-10pm

Christie Studio, 67 Greene Street, 3rd floor

New York City


Please accept this invitation to view the works by Linda Serrone Rolon, Bryan Christie, and Alkan Nallbani and their connection to Transmutation.  
Linda Serrone Rolon's elements of Transmutation are a conversion of life, material, and imagination.  Rolon has been painting Mother and Child as subject long before she even thought about being a mom.  Each interpretation is a reflection of her own personal experience and a deep connection to others’ stories of being a mother and/or a child.  “It is the surface that I need to keep clean and smooth. That feeling to make a terrible situation perfect, like in cinema—its nostalgic effort to turn an image into a life lesson.” From the boroughs of NYC, Rolon continues to work in Brooklyn with family in tow and has retired parts of her life to reconnect with the community in the only way she knows how (through her art).
Bryan Christie’s work explores the spectrum of human experience. "Our lives start with trauma as we are brought into the world from the safety of our mother's womb. We eventually die, experiencing the loss of all that is dear to us. Yet transcendence and the experience of the sublime are rooted in this fleeting material existence. The divine is made evident through tangible and sensual experience; without our physical selves, we would not experience moments of wonder and the mysterious." 
His work is an attempt to transform the lasting effects of his post-traumatic stress disorder from childhood abuse into a message of acceptance, love, and compassion. He ultimately believes that "the human body can express spiritual truths, and my work seeks to inspire a visceral experience of the ultimate love, truth, and beauty that lies in the heart of our world."
Christie’s paintings are created from multiple layers of silk bound together with encaustic, mounted on wooden panels. Many of the figures’ poses are derived from ancient classical sculpture and Renaissance paintings. Christie is inspired by these historical works because of the interplay between our flesh-and-blood existence and something less tangible—our soul.
Alkan Nallbani’s work presents simple images intended to suggest universal themes – humanity, sexuality, environment – raising questions about our existence along the continuum of time.  “My journey from repression to freedom is essential to, and provides the context for, my work but does not constrain it.  Although I cannot remain indifferent to the indelible mark imprinted upon me by such experiences, it is not specifically my identity as an Albanian or immigrant that interests me, but rather the transformative nature of the immigrant experience, inextricably linked with its timeless themes of dislocation, and the continuous challenge of humanity.” 





Apophyseal Avulsion Fractures of the Hip and Pelvis

By |April 24th, 2014|Syndicated Content|

Apophyseal avulsion fractures of the hip and pelvis are injuries that usually occur in the adolescent athlete. This illustration was used for a medical journal cover.

The post Apophyseal Avulsion Fractures of the Hip and Pelvis appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.

The TMJ eBook is out

By |April 22nd, 2014|Syndicated Content|

We had the pleasure to work with FOR and bring to life an exceptional resource for those desiring in-depth knowledge of temporomandibular joint anatomy. An incredible collection of images further enhances the experience of understanding the more intricate anatomic characteristics of the TMJ. The Temporomandibular Joint  joins the existing digital textbook Single Implants and Their Restoration.

How medical infographics assist on health explanations

By |April 21st, 2014|Syndicated Content|

Wow can medical infographics help with health explanations? From prehistoric times to the digital age infographics have helped in comprehending various subjects. Medical infographics contribute greatly to today’s medicine and science. The first maps were created thousands of years before writing. Maps have been found drawn on the walls of Turkish city Çatal Hüyük in 6200BC. Christopher Scheiner used graphics to illustrate his astronomy research about the Sun and in 1786 William Playfair published his first book with statistical

Impacted Wisdom Tooth “Full Bony” or “Horizontally” Impacted

By |April 16th, 2014|Syndicated Content|

Impacted Wisdom Tooth “Full Bony” or “Horizontally” Impacted

The post Impacted Wisdom Tooth “Full Bony” or “Horizontally” Impacted appeared first on Clark Medical Illustration.