What I learned about
Art and Science

 I graduated Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2012. While there I explored many media and styles of work but really struggled to find an identity for my creative self. I graduated feeling disheartened and more than a little confused about what should come next. I felt very distant from making art – like the tether to my creative urges had simply been cut and I was adrift. ​In an attempt to dig out of the rut, I made the decision to go back to school for my second love: biology.

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Since childhood I have always been a “naturalist,” collecting, investigating, observing, gathering and recording data. It seemed reasonable that if I could not find my place in the world through art, I may find it through science.

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​I excelled in my studies and, as I did, something unexpected happened. It felt as though the rigor of such an analytical "left brained" pursuit as science, seemed to be igniting a wild jealously in my creative “right brain.” I started making again. Small at first, little sketches and overly detailed diagrams. But it seemed the harder I worked at school the more I felt compelled to make, until it seemed the making and the learning were just two stages of one process. I finally felt as if my whole brain was ON. The two halves were not fighting each other; they were feeding each other.

​What I discovered was that I needed the exploration, the complexities and nuances, the challenges they posed and the deliciously intricate solutions they revealed. In order to feel satisfied by my own work I needed it to have the gravitas of knowledge. This was the lens through which I could finally see the work I wanted to make.