Each year, when the snow finally rolls in, I’m always thinking about the ending of The Shining. Especially this year – the weather had been so gorgeous for so long, and all of the sudden it dropped and snow poured from the skies. It’s the Michigan condition, and we have to love it a little, but it’s so drastic. My mood changes as the cold arrives, I want to do nothing but sit and think. I can see myself perfectly in the movie’s ending, just as Jack was out freezing in the dark, covered in ice and snow. Winter kind of sucks, I think to myself, but there’s comfort to be had in it, too. Break is coming up, and soon I’ll be cozied up by a fireplace eating turkey. The end of the semester is coming up, and I can finally take my winter hibernation. I hope you’re all fighting through the cold okay! Good luck this week and thanks for reading.
Good Morning all! I hope that you are doing well. In an effort to bring more of a science energy to my column and explore various arenas of thought, I wanted to share an incredible artist who magnifies the smaller things in life!
The Life Cycle of Coronavirus
David Goodshell is an associate professor at the Scripps Research Institute and research professor at Rutgers University, New Jersey. He is especially known for his gorgeous watercolor paintings of cell interiors and signature scientific illustration. As explained on his website, Goodshell has been working since the early 1990’s with a type of illustration that shows portions of living cells magnified so that you can see individual molecules. He explains, “I try to make these illustrations as accurate as possible, using information from atomic structure analysis, electron microscopy, and biochemical analysis to get the proper number of molecules, in the proper place, and with the proper size and shape.”
Influenza Virus
Many of Goodshell’s illustrations are free for download and use through a gallery at the RCSB Protein Data Bank. He has also published a book titled “The Machinery of Life,” which includes illustrations of portions of bacterial and human cells.
I love Goodshell’s work as it brings science and molecular life to the general public, educating people through beautiful images and artwork. Science is an art in itself and the aesthetic principles that artists worship are rooted in nature. Personally, I have always been very interested in medical illustration as well as the healing qualities of art via art therapy. I hope to speak more on these topics in the future and engage more intimately with my art in a scientific light.
Please let me know if there is anything more that you all would like to see from me. If any questions or thoughts arise, please comment or reach out to me via my socials!
Welcome back again! For this week’s edition of Chroma, I generated this palette:
When I saw the colors of this palette, I was somewhat reminded of chīwěn (蚩吻), one of the nine sons of the Dragon King in traditional Chinese mythology. I had wanted to get a tattoo of it a while ago, and although I never got around to it, I had searched many images and drawn out designs of it. Specifically, it reminded me of an image of a chīwěn on the roof of the Longyin Temple in Chukou, Taiwan (shown below), though looking back, the colors don’t actually match very much.
Either way, I decided to draw a personification of this dragon in the form of a goddess/woman. I also wanted to practice the solid black color shading I had used briefly after playing the game Hades. I didn’t end up finishing coloring the background, but I hopefully will be done with it next week!
Hey guys!
The weather here in Ann Arbor is insane. I have lived in Michigan my entire life and every year I forget how fast the weather can change. One day it’s scorching hot and the next it is snowing! This week I wanted to talk about the weather we are all currently enduring. If anyone is wondering what I draw these images on I use my iPad with procreate. (Unfortunately a paid program but if anyone wants a recommendation for some free programs I have some!) I went to a football game for the first time in college and of course, it snowed! I thought I could handle it with four layers, but I get cold so fast. I was freezing. What I wouldn’t give to move somewhere warm. I hope everyone is getting excited about the upcoming Thanksgiving break. I plan to post over Christmas and Thanksgiving breaks. See you next week!
Whether you regard it as a blessing or a curse, life is unpredictable! Anything can happen so you might as well enjoy the ride!I’m certain you’ve heard some variation of this: The one for you will arrive when you least expect it. If it is said enough, perhaps there is truth to it?
Life will always be filled to the brim with unexpected possibilities. Fighting the current won’t do you good, so go with the flow!
