This series of large portraiture is dedicated to the athletes, volunteers, and officials of Michigan roller derby.
These are carbon dust drawings rendered on paper that has been toned with the dirt of more than three dozen roller derby wheels.

Derby takes all kinds; this ongoing series seeks to convey that spirit.

(photographic references | thanks to Andrew Potter Photography and Joe Mac)

Megan E. B. Foldenauer is a native Chicagoan, alumna of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Johns Hopkins, and has been a certified medical and biological illustrator since 2000. A decade into being in the Mitten, she completed her PhD in Anatomy in 2012 at Wayne State in Detroit. Megan spends a large amount of time playing roller derby with the Ann Arbor Derby Dimes, obsessing over music, collecting objects to draw/drawing, eating mac & cheese, and helping her son, Magnus, navigate Kindergarten. Drawing is a passion that she feels very fortunate to do daily.

Carbon dust is a very beautiful, old medical illustration drawing technique wherein loose dust (filings from carbon pencils) is applied to board or heavy paper with a brush and manipulated with blending stumps and chamois, primarily. Honestly, this piece has also seen the use of paper towel and my own body as tools. Then, erasers of all stripes, white conté/chalk, white gouache/watercolor, or even an exact-o (to scratch the surface back to the surface’s tone) are used to create the spectral highlighting and surface textures.

This exhibit was curated by MICA’s Director, Katrina M. Daniels.