Hey, this is Kadeer Wellington, and you’re watching the Disney channel!
I’m Kadeer Wellington, an international student of Fisk University majoring in Data Science and Art. This year, I was accepted into VUMC’s Artist-in-Residence program, where we’re paired with labs and making artistic expressions of the study they were conducting. Not only was I appointed as a resident artist, but I was also appointed as a Peer Mentor for an HBCU HUB. The concept is pretty new to the program, and we’re testing the waters, but I’m happy that everyone’s still finding their groove with it.
I was paired with the Dash Lab, where they’re working on studying the replication process of HIV to target ways to stop its spread. I’ll meet with them soon, so I hope to understand their course of study better. This year, although I plan on using the same digital illustration software as I did before, Medibang Paint Pro, I want to try my hand at the other art resources that the other AiR participants shared. They all look interesting, and there are even tools for animation, data visualization, digital storyboarding, graphics editing, research, prototyping, and so much more. Because of all these resources being shared, I have more options to complete the work I was assigned and personal projects that I wanted to work on. I shared a blender for animation since it was a tool that I was taught to use back when I was going to concentration in graphic design.
Since I’ve yet to meet with my lab, I don’t have a concrete proposal. However, I do believe that I want to make a short comic or a comic strip for the lab to showcase their study since comic art is what I’m best at. I’m not sure how I’ll convey HIV replication, but I’m sure we’ll come up with something that’ll knock the socks off of whoever the lab has to present their study to.
Aside from our lab, the program as a whole has been going pretty well. Our supervisor, Kendra, has been doing a great job checking up on us and funneling artistic and scientific resources for us to use. She’s also been good at communicating and keeping us on track. The members of the HBCU HUB are all cool and productive people. They all know what they want to do and have a good idea of what they want to make. Even though I’m a peer mentor, it just feels like this is a team of artists working on different projects that come together at the end to make a collaborative project, like the Megazords in Power Rangers.
That’s all from me, and now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
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