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 →
Several years ago, I received a comment on my website stating that: “Work and chores get done, because the world needs them to be done. Art gets done because there is an internal need for it to happen.” I grew up doing a lot of arts and crafts, which did not necessarily stem from the... Continue Reading →
With the exception of "The Brain Project", which showed the amazing connectedness of the human nervous system, I have spent the last few months fiddling around with some small home decor art projects while incubating the next big SciArt idea. Then I spent another month thinking of the engineering logistics needed to put it together. ... 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 →
My interview with Convergence Initiative
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 →
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 →
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 →
I was recently asked what my first memory of wanting to create art is. Ever since early childhood, I have greatly admired my father for his artistic abilities. My dad is not an artist, but somehow art seeps through everything he does. He is a very aesthetic person. In his twenties, he spent quite a... Continue Reading →
