For this project I drew a lot of my inspiration from Alphonse Mucha and Aubrey Beardsley. Beardsley was my primary sources of inspiration. I wanted to work with a traditional medium for this project and I also wanted to work in black and white to pay homage to Beardsley, so I choose to do a Linoleum Block Print. Initially I wanted to portray a situation similar to Beardsley’s but as I sketched and brainstormed I realized that I wanted to use this very traditional style of art to portray a very contemporary subject. I thought it would create an interesting juxtaposition. I am fascinated with surgery and thought it would be fun to take such an unnatural situation and depict it as organically and fluidly as possible to keep to the art nouveau style. I had read about an open-heart surgery, which was preformed in India where the patient was kept awake, the article contained an incredible picture of the man staring into the camera while his heart was out of his chest. When I found this picture again it became my final source of inspiration.
This is not my picture, it was just inspiration for the woodblock. I take no credit. The photographer was not listed on the site and I could not find the photographer when I searched the image. I will gladdy give credit were credit is due so if this is your image please feel free to contact me. Thank you for the inspiration. The man in the pictures name is Swaroup Anand.
