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 →
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 →
SciArt – who is it for?
Several weeks ago, I was listening to the Art Juice podcast and they had a great guest - Seth Godin. He was talking about his new book "The Practice", which is a collection of small snippets about how creating art is all about the process. I can totally relate! It is such a soothing and meditative activity... Continue Reading →
Our inner hurricanes
I have written earlier about whether or not it matters if the artist and the viewer put the same meaning into a piece of art. I would imagine that the chances that our points of view match are pretty low. Back then, I mostly thought about it from the point of personal taste, experiences and... Continue Reading →
Here is a special art treat!
Recently I participated in a Zoom gallery reception by Tomato Mouse Gallery. While the organizers certainly deserve a round of applause for setting up such a great event, looking at my works on Zoom made it painfully obvious to me how difficult it is to portray the 3rd dimension of my work on a screen.... Continue Reading →
“Brilliant Mind” is published in Consilience Journal!
The Science The human mind is a truly beautiful and elusive concept. Despite considerable progress in neuroscience research, we still cannot quite explain where our mind is and what it looks like. I created the “Brilliant Mind” by taking schematic images of the human brain from the Allen Brain Atlas and portraying them as beaded... Continue Reading →
An embarrassing story of how it took me 20 years to interpret an abstract sculpture
The myth behind the sculpture When I was applying to colleges, I went on a campus tour at Columbia University. Columbia campus is gorgeous and I was drinking it all in. When we approached Columbia Law School, the tour guide drew our attention to the odd sculpture in front of it. We stood there for... Continue Reading →
The brain sculpture is finally finished!
Just like pretty much all of my big art projects, this one took several months to complete. Maybe even a year if you count the brainstorming and incubation process. The idea was to take several sections (or slices) of the human brain from the Allen Brain Atlas and recreate them on slices of plexiglass out... Continue Reading →
Attraction, 2019 – Stem cells travel to Canada
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 “Hope” series is featured in the Spring 2020 edition of GASHER Journal
I am honored that GASHER Journal has accepted my "Hope" series to their Spring 2020 edition. Here is the summary of my featured works. All of them are available for sale here. About the Artwork: Grief is a strong emotional response to a crisis and can come in many forms. It may come from losing... Continue Reading →