at least that's what we say we are doin

found on Quotenik, my new favorite thing:

“Even the hardest of the sciences depend on a foundation of metaphors. To be aware of metaphors is to be humbled by the complexity of the world, to realize that deep in the undercurrents of thought there are thousands of lenses popping up between us and the world’” 

—David Brooks

and the sky grows dark (if you're looking up)

"Please use one word to describe yourself" 

"What word would others use to describe you?"

I had a job interview last week. It was over the phone. I'd never really thought about it before but because it lacked the normal personal contact I felt the extreme strangeness of the situation... I tried to boil myself down to a few phrases and events and present it in a way that I though might make someone else interested... it felt absurd.

I realized that these two phrases are a nice example of what I'm interested in and where my work comes from. The answers to these questions both successfully communicate something and fail to really say anything. Embedded in the response are years of experience, a personalized connotation based on the way your mom described your uncle or how your least favorite teacher said "determined" five hundred times a day. You blindly give out a wordyou to believe it means one thing while the person you deliver it to has a completely different set of experiences that may or may not lead them to feel favorably about this word.

This tension that I find so fascinating and the way we bridge the gap between us and other. We try and try and try and sometimes it works out. It's just so beautifully human.

Though, I'm not really expecting a call back any time soon. 

I used the word "determined"

the state I am in

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I am perpetually nervous about the significant influence my scientific studies have on my art. As a firm believer that natural phenomena are beautiful in their own right, I struggle with how often I appropriate these naturally arresting images yet I'm continually drawn to them as aids in dissecting less concrete phenotypes. 

Relationships seen in nature can be immensely useful, insightful, and powerful. I seek to harness those qualities, adding to the inherent beauty and progressing toward greater understanding.

Currently, I'm obsessed with chick embryos in culture

Image taken from Rita Levi-Montalcini's nobel lecture.

Don't ask for the water.

Anna Betts

I really like these pieces.

I love that this is "student work", that they're so simple, so quiet, and so bold. They're really just so... everything-that's-good-about-Etsy. 

 The same woman who makes these tiles also happens to be my new favorite blogger and etsy shop, so check it out!

Sh-Boom

Sarah Morris

I like this.

and this.

and this.

and this.

Meanwhile, I'm making this:

It seems anti-climactic... but I don't think it really is all that surprising. I've always loved line, pattern, repetition, and anything that confuses the eye (or, more accurately, the brain). I'm interested in the difference between what exists and what we perceive-- and the differences between the collective "we see" and the individual "I see". One could argue that these differences are easiest to "see" in op art but trickle down through the styles and are important to each individual viewing experience. As an artist, I recognize these differences, I'm acutely aware that I view the world through a different filter than everyone and anyone else, and I desire to communicate visually with others both because of and in spite of these differences. These pieces remind me of this struggle and remind me of these ideas more acutely than, say, Emily Eveleth's photorealistic and abstract paintings, while enriching these other viewing experiences with this knowledge.

Okay?

Shake Appeal

Linda Besemer follows in the tradition of Victor Vasarely

Her work:

I used to love these pieces. I studied them in high school. I made things like them in high school. There was a time (yes, in high school) when I thought I'd always use some sort of optical illusion or Gestalt-ian principle in my work. 

His work:

 In a way, I was right.

I think it's good to look back at your foundations and good to stretch the idea of "foundations". No, my work doesn't immediately look like something Vasarely-like but it does involve pattern and repetition... they're challenging to me. That makes them good for me. I don't know what that means for you but, regardless:

Enjoy!

All I want is you

Emily Eveleth

It's no secret that I love doughnuts. I blame it on watching too much Twin Peaks.

I also happen to be continually mesmerized by fat and the body. It's malfunctions and disfunctions and proper function. As a scientist, I've dedicated my life to figuring out how things work and how we work on a microscopic level but this obsession has made me prone to romanticism of the body as a whole. 

 When the complexity of something small like a cell is so overwhelming, it's hard to comprehend an entire body working, short of magic. To me, these paintings show that magic. I can't look at them and NOT think of our fat little stomach pouches, our wrinkles, and that mysterious entity we call our "guts"

The body is gross and gorgeous. What we do to it and how it responds equally gross and gorgeous. Gross and gorgeous is really my thing... and it appears to be Emily Eveleth's thing, too.