Artophagy: The art of autophagy—Macroautophagy

Many of us have sketched (by hand or on the computer) depictions of macroautophagy; however, how often have we considered which elements in the drawing are key to illustrating the process? These types of illustrations are easily modified and/or discarded. On the other hand, if you plan to depict the process of macroautophagy in a more permanent medium you need to be more thoughtful about the composition. What items must be included? How should they be situated? What should be the size of each component? Here, we consider one example of an artist’s approach to depicting macroautophagy in a mixed-medium sculpture.