New Project: RPE Quilts

Since this is 2020, it seems like every art gallery or quilt show is having a Vision 2020 themed show or exhibition.  Of course as a vision researcher I wanted to enter at least some of these, but the two previous vision associated quilts I did, (here and here) aren't available to show anymore really.

So I decided to make a couple of new ones!   The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) combined with the blood vessels of the choroid comprise the support tissue for the neural retina.  If the RPE and choroid stop working or start to die, then the retina cannot receive nutrients or eliminate waste properly. This is what happens in age-related macular degeneration.  The RPE and choroid start to degenerate, and then the retina starts to die as well, leading to vision loss and blindness. I therefore decided to make a series of quilts using the really cool patterns of the RPE and choroid as my starting point.  The RPE is a layer of epithelial cells that is tightly arranged in a largely hexagonal pattern, with the network of small choroidal blood vessels known as the choriocapillaris directly behind it.

Inspired by the "sun" printing exercise from Betty Busby's class, I cut a whole bunch of vinyl masks in the shape of the retinal pigment epithelium.  I made this design using Adobe illustrator and one of my micrographs of the RPE and cut it out of vinyl on the silhouette at two different scales.

Here you can see a piece I painted with the vinyl over it while it dries.

I painted several different fabrics, below you can see a couple of them after they dried and I removed the vinyl.  

The next step was much coloring with paint markers and jelly pens to give some depth and texture,  below you can sort of see where I've started outlining my shapes with marker, and further painting in the one below.

After finishing with the coloring, I started on the layer of blood vessels.  This is the pattern I designed for the choriocapillaris, but instead of cutting it out of vinyl, I cut it out of painted non-woven fabric, ready to fuse to my quilt surface.

 Here you can see me quilting (on my mom's longarm no less) the choriocapillaris layer (orange) down onto the painted RPE layer (blue-purple).

Check back later this week to see the first three small quilts I made using this fabric!