Sara Hutson: Senior Work

I have a great love of both music and art. As I have sampled different medias, I have been looking for one that will allow me to reconcile the two, and so I have taken an interest in creating package designs and album artwork for CDs. This also allows me to work in my love of illustration and typography, and combine them into a product that is a bridge between art and music. For my imagery, I target scenes of familiarity. I like to work with things we see so often that they blend into the background because they automatically connect to the viewer. Then I like to twist an aspect of it so that is once more abstracted, and takes more time to decipher. I am also interested in the use of mirrors for their challenge of space and complexity of meaning. In my research on mirrors, I have become fascinated by their ability to be a bridge between reality and fantasy. Mirrors possess the unique ability to reveal truth, they can confuse by extending a space, they can create infinity, or they can be small windows into a space that we can never truly inhabit. I hope, as I work with CD package design, to find a way to work in mirrors and take on a greater dimension of thought and composition in my work. My influences include (there is definitely a graphic designer we have studied that I know designed hundreds of albums. I wanted to look at his work, but I cannot remember his name.) Also, Al Hirschfeld, for his descriptive line work in his illustrations. I adore the fluidity of Louise Fili’s typography, Saul Bass’s illustrations, El Lissitzky’s unique abstractions, and Lucian Bernard’s combination of typography and illustration. In terms of mirror artwork, I like to reference Michelangelo Pistoletto, for his incorporation of the viewer; Yayoi Kusama, for her creation of infinite spaces; and Robert Smithson, for his mirror concepts.https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art399/1001/thumbnail.jp

Rock, Paper, Scissors

In my honors thesis I will be investigating and commenting on the abolishment of social boundaries for the sake of contributing to a greater cause. I will be working in the media of graphic design, and creating three short novels as well as their advertisements to draw interest to this overarching theme. Each book will present a different social class, and the viewer will witness characters from three different social classes being brought together over a common enemy. I hope to both create an interesting social commentary on the ineffectiveness of polarized groups, while also making this commentary alluring through its presentation. I have crafted these books so that they have a similar feeling to a childhood storybook, and hope that this will accomplish a simple, yet profound message. We are stronger together than apart. The entire show will consist of eight to nine artworks. Three short novels, three posters, and two advertisements, as well as a website, should time allow it. They will be presented in a gallery at the end of the semester, where the advertisements and purpose will be tested amongst a live audience. Should the website be successful, I plan to make it possible to leave commentary on the novels, and have usable data to see if my message is received

Delayed intramuscular human neurotrophin-3 improves recovery in adult and elderly rats after stroke

There is an urgent need for a therapy that reverses disability after stroke when initiated in a time frame suitable for the majority of new victims. We show here that intramuscular delivery of neurotrophin-3 (NT3, encoded by NTF3 ) can induce sensorimotor recovery when treatment is initiated 24 h after stroke. Specifically, in two randomized, blinded preclinical trials, we show improved sensory and locomotor function in adult (6 months) and elderly (18 months) rats treated 24 h following cortical ischaemic stroke with human NT3 delivered using a clinically approved serotype of adeno-associated viral vector (AAV1). Importantly, AAV1-hNT3 was given in a clinically-feasible timeframe using a straightforward, targeted route (injections into disabled forelimb muscles). Magnetic resonance imaging and histology showed that recovery was not due to neuroprotection, as expected given the delayed treatment. Rather, treatment caused corticospinal axons from the less affected hemisphere to sprout in the spinal cord. This treatment is the first gene therapy that reverses disability after stroke when administered intramuscularly in an elderly body. Importantly, phase I and II clinical trials by others show that repeated, peripherally administered high doses of recombinant NT3 are safe and well tolerated in humans with other conditions. This paves the way for NT3 as a therapy for stroke