Childhood memories I was 9 years old when we moved from Russia to the U.S. I didn't speak English and found solace in watching Russian movies that my parents rented from a store nearby. It seems like it was ages ago, but many quotes from those classic Soviet movies stuck with me till today. One... Continue Reading →
Need a pick-me-up? How about a splash of color in your life?
“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 →
Drumroll please – introducing “Wilting Mind”
“Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.”- Leonardo da Vinci I haven't heard this quote before. By some strange coincidence I accidentally came across it only a few weeks ago, as I was thinking of writing a... Continue Reading →
“Your mind is a garden, your thoughts are the seeds…”
Over the last couple of months, I have fallen off the face of the earth. Again. At least off of the blogosphere anyway. It has been a crazy couple of months for me, to say the least. Work has been stressful and I was in the process of being interviewed for a new job. Not... Continue Reading →
Drumroll please – introducing “Muted Potential” (Part I)!
Finally. Introducing my first completed project of 2021 - “Muted Potential”! While initially I was surprised that it took less than 2 months to complete the beadwork, I then took my sweet time assembling it and taking pictures. Guilty. As you may have read in some of my earlier posts, the cellular pattern is based... Continue Reading →
I just want to feel this moment
“If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.”- Lao Tzu I recently heard this quote at it really resonated with me. Despite being a neuroscientist, I had a pretty hazy understanding of... Continue Reading →
My beaded art piece “Finding Your Self” will be exhibited at a New York gallery next week!
You can read more about this piece here, here and here. And please check out my gallery for more of my artwork! You can also come join my Patreon community for more behind the scenes photos!
How I use art to retain connection with my past passions
https://www.instagram.com/p/BmO6Lhughot/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet As some of you may know, I currently work at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Gene Editing and Screening Core Facility. What does that mean in English? I means that I do large (high throughput) experiments called screens to find novel drugs for regulating different cellular functions. Each project is different and unique... Continue Reading →
This is how SciArt ideas are born
Last year, while going through the SciArt Center residency program, I wrote a blog post about how I start planning out new projects and how my “blueprints” turn into 3-dimensional artwork. In contrast to (likely) most artists, my sketchbook contains more writing than drawing. This is how I capture ideas about different options that I... Continue Reading →
“Finding Your Self”
Finding Your Self, 2019 Here is the final version of this 5 month (!!!) long project. As a refresher, it is based on a closeup microscopy image of a retina, which is responsible for our sense of vision. The blue branches are blood vessels. The red strands are axons of neurons that transmit the information... Continue Reading →