HOPE students explore medical fields

David Gordon, cardiovascular pathologist at Parke-Davis and adjunct associate professor of pathology, explains some of the models in the plastination lab to Scotty Greene (center), a student at West Middle School, and Eric Chanowski, and Ypsilanti High School student. The HOPE program is designed to introduce underrepresented minority students to the skills necessary in the health care field and to keep their interest level high. Photo by Paul Jaronski

Snap Shots

‘Seeing It Through’ at Museum of Art showcases faculty artists

Team work and the inspiration and artistry of School of Art and Design (SoAD) lecturer Michael Kapetan took the artist’s first flimsy pencil sketch to a monumental working artifact of earth, plants and stone.

Kapetan’s analemmatic sundial, installed at the official residence of the Vice President of the United States is represented in a wood model (above), photos and text on display at the Museum of Art as part of the display of works by SoAD faculty members. The exhibition, ‘Seeing it Through’ continues until July 3.

With the help of U-M computer designers; granite fabricators in Cold Spring, Minn.; astronomers at the Naval Observatory; and masons and gardeners, Kapetan’s sundial rests just a few dozen yards from the Nation’s “atomic clock,” which is accurate to the nanosecond.

Kapetan’s piece brings the human back into the time machine by having a person step on the granite date scale at the approximate current day of the year. 'Then,’ says the artist, ‘as they feel the sun on the back of their shoulders, they see their own shadow mark the hour of the day.’ Photo by Rebecca A. Doyle

Artist‘s childhood fascination with bread leads to career

‘When I was a kid, I used to get in trouble for playing with my bread,’ says Sadashi Inuzuka, assistant professor of art. 'I would hide it in my pocket until after dinner and press it between my fingers until it turned back into dough, until it turned black.‘

This early fascination with bread turned into a love of clay, as the artist finds both bread and clay share many of the same qualities and processes.

'I especially like the play of meaning in bread,’ he says, Œof live culture, social culture, nourishment, decay. I wonder if my parents were here to see this work, if I would still get in trouble.‘

Inuzuka’s 'Bread’ is part of ‘Seeing it Through,’ an exhibition of works by faculty artists from the School of Art and Design, on view at the Museum of Art until July 3. Photo by Rebecca A. Doyle

Rescue effort a success: Everything‘s just ducky

Mother duck waddled off happily after Department of Public Safety (DPS) officers rescued her brood from inside a North Campus sewer grate where they had fallen last week. Workers who saw the duck running back and forth called DPS and loaned them equipment to dip out the ducklings. Once removed from the storm drain, the ducklings happily followed their mother back into the brush. Photos courtesy Officer Pat Alessi, DPS