When Neuroscience Meets Abstract Expressionism
Posted on by Dr. Francis Collins
Like many biomedical researchers, David Sweatt thinks about his science “morning, noon, and night.” But Sweatt has a unique way of unwinding after a busy week of investigating the biochemistry of learning and memory in his lab at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN. This creative mind goes home, picks up a brush, and transfers some of his scientific thoughts onto canvas as abstract expressionist art.
Sweatt has exhibited his striking paintings, many bearing scientifically inspired titles such as Dendritic Spine and NMDA Receptor, at shows and art co-ops in Nashville, Birmingham, and Houston. But wowing art collectors is not what drives his inner Jackson Pollock. In fact, his favorite place to “exhibit” his work is on the covers of scientific journals and alongside complex content in biomedical textbooks.
This scientist’s artistic endeavors began by chance more than 20 years ago while he was on the neuroscience faculty at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. One evening over a glass of wine, he and his wife Kim, then both in their late 30s, decided it would be a blast to take an art class together. Both had no history of prior artistic inclinations. But there was an art school a few blocks away, and they imagined a semester of fun-filled evenings attending a “sip and stroke” art class surrounded by other good-natured amateurs.
When the two inquired at the school about evening classes, they received a strange look. It turns out that this wasn’t any old art school. It was the Glassell School of Art, then affiliated with a nearby university and now the teaching institute of Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts. Before learning to paint, they’d need to take prerequisite courses in drawing, composition, and color theory. They looked at each, thought a moment, and shrugged, “Why not?”
Their “why not” soon unlocked artistic talents that neither knew they possessed. While Sweatt’s wife gravitated toward painting portraits of political figures, he drew his inspiration from neuroscience and the abstract expressionist style pioneered by the so-called New York School of the 1950s.
Sweatt said he gravitated to abstract expressionism because of his scientific background. He explains that today’s biomedicine is filled with abstract concepts that mostly can’t be seen, even with the highest-powered microscope. These abstractions lend themselves to artistic interpretation that convey the energy and dynamism of biology through the power of color and composition.
Interestingly, Sweatt says his art is “a one-way street,” offering little, if any, influence on his thinking about science. However, he does view his relatively late entry into painting as a perfect illustration of a much larger life lesson: You’re never too old to try something new. And that’s a lesson he constantly strives to impart to all in his lab, no matter where they lie on the scientific career spectrum. To inspire others outside of his lab, Sweatt is also active in Vanderbilt’s ArtLab, a unique campus space that connects artists and researchers with the aim of conveying science’s wonders to people of all backgrounds.
As he looks toward the future, Sweatt envisions a day when he’ll retire from his bustling, tech-filled lab and devote more of his time to the tranquil, low-tech pursuit of painting. But his embrace of the science and art worlds exemplifies a broadly shared conclusion: that both are ways of pursuing beauty.
Links:
Sweatt Lab (Vanderbilt University, Nashville)
Video: David Sweatt: Molecular Mechanisms of Learning and Memory (Vanderbilt)
ArtLab Kick Off (Vanderbilt)
NIH Support: National Institute of Mental Health
.png)
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario