In 2016, I collaborated with SDSU microbiologist, David Lipson, on a project based on a science-art residency at a field station in Kilpisjarvi, Finland. I produced a number of paintings visualizing his study of the snow microbiology in the area. We have presented this work at a science meeting (American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, New Orleans, LA, 2017), in an art gallery, and at a multi-media art and music festival. From the AGU abstract:

“A challenge in science-art collaborations is to create artwork that accurately represents scientific results while standing as an independent art object. Art associated with science may merely be illustrative, serving to decorate a scientific study, or conversely, science-art may only superficially derive from data without addressing its broader scientific meaning. A fully integrated work of science-art requires copious communication between the scientist and the artist. Here we present the results of a collaboration between a microbial ecologist and a painter, to study and depict the nature of microbial communities in the snow pack of the Finnish Arctic around Lake Kilpisjarvi. Snow profiles were studied along an altitudinal gradient that spanned the lake, a mountain birch forest, the transitional forest near tree line, and the alpine above tree line on the fell, Saana.”