While it can often take me quite a bit of time to come up with a new idea for my next big project, I cannot sit still in the meantime. My hands have to keep creating something. Otherwise, I get restless. Here is one of my "interim" projects that I created while getting ready to... Continue Reading →
The stem cell revolution When I was in graduate school, I had to perform weekly dissections of neonatal rat brains to isolate primary neurons for my experiments. It was not a particularly enjoyable process and an ungrateful one too. After spending 2 – 3 hours meticulously dissecting a dozen brains under a microscope, I would... Continue Reading →
The secret is finally out! I am so excited to share that one of my favorite works "Fragile Memory", that is based on a microscopy image of the hippocampus of a Brainbow mouse, is featured on the cover of Biological Psychiatry journal! I just received the journal in the mail last week! For the last... Continue Reading →
The Corona Virus pandemic has upended our lives. We were already facing global climate change and increases in the number of nuclear weapons. Now this virus, and others that may follow. Most of us who are fortunate enough to be artists don’t usually need to confront such realities. We survived 9/11 and Sandy. We have... Continue Reading →
This blog post was originally published on Lifeology on 7/16/20. For the past few months, I have been dabbling in small projects here and there, but have kind of put an unintentional hold on my real SciArt. Of course, I created the sculpture for “The Brain Project” for a summer exhibition in Toronto. But otherwise... Continue Reading →
After spending a few months working on and off on this project, I can finally say that squirrel and its home are finished. You can read more about the early stages of this project here. I intentionally made the painting relatively simple, so that I could embellish it with some beads and allow the squirrel... Continue Reading →
The contest "The Yogen Früz Brain Project [is] a city-wide Toronto art exhibit, [and] is celebrating its fifth year with exciting, thought-provoking works of art that raise awareness about brain health and critical funding for research at Baycrest for Alzheimer’s and related dementias." Earlier this year, my proposal got accepted to "The Brain Project" by... Continue Reading →
When somebody mentions the "stages of grief", what comes to mind? Is it necessarily death or the loss of a loved one? Is it necessarily tied to losing a person (or perhaps pet), or can it be applicable to inanimate things as well? For example, could it be related to a certain stage in your... Continue Reading →
It has been some time since I have finished and sent off “The Brain Project” to Toronto. I typically don’t create art under deadlines, but “The Brain Project” had to be completed in under 2 months. Several weeks after shipping out the brain sculpture I created, I found out that thanks to the coronavirus, the... Continue Reading →
I have been trying to think back to the first time I felt prompted to create art. While definitely not proportional to the number of years, my life seems to be split into 2 parts - before and after moving from Russia to the United States. I believe I became more serious about creating art... Continue Reading →
