“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.”-William Arthur Ward This quote was put up on a screen at our Chief Scientific Officer's retirement party back in 2017. While the party was very nice and well-intentioned on the surface, in reality it was a forced retirement.... Continue Reading →
Pushing the envelope in science AND art
"Thinking outside the box" has become a bit of a cliché. But in science it is more important than ever. As the base of human knowledge propels ahead with lightning speed, it takes a special set of skills and knowledge to be on the cutting edge of innovation. When I was in graduate school, there... Continue Reading →
What inspires my art
It may come off as an unexpected way of starting an artist blog post, but truth be told, art mostly helps me stay sane as a mother. This is one of the many reasons I brought it back into my life after letting it fall by the wayside for more than a decade. It helps... Continue Reading →
Art as Therapy
In November 2019, I was invited as one of the speakers at the SciVizNYC Symposium at my grad school alma mater - Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The program gathered people from a wide array of professions, ranging from surgeons to medical illustrators to fine artists, and gave a great overview of how... Continue Reading →
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 →
“The Mind” – an artistic experiment – Part II
This work and its counterpart started out as a little sketch in my bullet journal. I had the idea of creating two "identical" pictures. One showing empty space in the shape of a neuron and the other being its mirror image that is filled with an actual cell. Here's the birth certificate of this idea.... Continue Reading →
“The Void” – an artistic experiment – Part I
Following my "Stages of Grief" series, I have set out to create a piece to represent the very first stage - DENIAL. While in my earlier pieces I did my best to stay true to scientific form, here I have come to border abstraction. This piece turns the biology on its head, showing the outline of a... Continue Reading →
“Sunrise”
One of the major challenges in the field of neuroscience is the poor ability of neurons to regenerate after acute injury. Conditions such as spinal cord injury sever the neuronal connections, leading to permanent paralysis with no treatments currently available. After birth, the vast majority of neurons lose their ability to divide and create new cells,... Continue Reading →
“Hope”
Ever since going through a traumatic experience in 2017, I have been working on expressing my emotions through art. In 2017, I created "Tortured", where the nerve scar represents a shocking life event that acts as a significant barrier to moving forward. Despite its presence, some brave growth tips manage to break through. They show resilience,... Continue Reading →
Epilepsy awareness
Experiencing an epileptic seizure can be quite scary. It comes as a wave of abnormal electrical activity in the brain that can lead to a wide spectrum of symptoms. These symptoms can range from feeling lightly nauseous and unsteady, to exhibiting uncontrollable jerking movements and losing consciousness. It can be debilitating, not only at the... Continue Reading →