Unlocking the creative block

SciArt Center Art Residency Program Week 13 - originally published on 12/13/18 The last two weeks have been a bit of a blur.  After completing several layers of cells, I have hit a wall and decided that I needed a break from this project.  I feel like it is the time to decide on where... Continue Reading →

Purity of technique

SciArt Center Art Residency Program Week 12 - originally published on 12/5/18 As I have mentioned before, most of the time, art and science coexist in my brain.  While the setting, such as being at work vs. at home, may dictate which side dominates, the other side rarely shuts off.  In my scientific career, I... Continue Reading →

The Beholder’s Share

SciArt Center Art Residency Program Week 11 - originally published on 11/23/18 Over the past several months, I have been listening to a lot of art-related podcasts.   Currently, my favorite one is “Your Creative Push”.  In the process of listening to interviews of multiple artists, certain elements appear again and again.  These include: The necessity... Continue Reading →

Evolution of ideas

The original idea for my current project was inspired by a specific series of events in my life last year.  To me, using the layers of neurons in this work represents certain layers of my knowledge, interests and passions, which have been temporarily covered up and moved to the back burner.   Looking through my... Continue Reading →

Propping up the cells

I am falling a little behind on posting these here, so I will put this blog post from the SciArt Residency program in quotes. Last week, Darcy, Kate and I had a very productive Skype call, where I expressed my concern about the technical challenges of attaching the beaded cells to the canvas in a... Continue Reading →

Creating art using the STEAM method

Last weekend, I mostly finished sewing the first layer of yellow rondelle beads.  In the original microscopy image, the cell nuclei were colored bright blue, due to being labeled with Hoechst stain, which labels DNA.  In Darcy’s version of the image, she switched this color to pale yellow, which makes them look more delicate and... Continue Reading →

The creative process

After settling on creating “Mapping Manhattan”, this week I finally got a chance to go out and buy some supplies, including a canvas and beads.  I painted the canvas with black paint (though it ended up looking a bit like wood in the photo) to create the background that is typical for fluorescence microscopy images.... Continue Reading →

Mapping Manhattan

Darcy and I have decided to move forward with the image she called “Mapping Manhattan”.  From the beginning of our collaboration, I told Darcy that I would like to create something that would represent the synthesis of the field of neuroscience and the context of New York.  Initially, I sent her a sketch that I... Continue Reading →

Trash or treasure?

What defines a success or failure?  Does it depend on objective data or a subjective opinion?  And following that, can there be different views of the same physical object?  Also, how much of this should be defined by the informed originator versus the unknowing spectator?  During one of our conversations with Darcy and Kate, we... Continue Reading →

Scientist’s lab notebook vs. artist’s sketchbook

Recently,  Darcy and I have been discussing the parallel aspects that are present in the daily lives of artists and scientists.   One topic that has repeatedly come up is the comparison scientists’ lab notebooks and artists’ sketchbooks. In both professions, these records serve as a place to document methods, results and progress over time.  They... Continue Reading →

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