My New Hangout

I have a new blogging gig! I'm posting a science-art pick of the week every Wednesday over at The Finch and Pea, the Public House for Science, in which Items of Interest and Curiosities of Nature are discussed employing the latest techniques in Logic and The Scientific Method for the furtherance of Human Erudition and the promotion of Critical Thought.


Join me, Josh Witten, Mike White and Marie-Claire Shanahan for a pint or two of science, sci-fi, art, music and general good cheer whenever you have a free moment. We're also collecting the artwork from the blog on a Pinterest board, in case you miss anything.

There I Am Again

Another pretty cool thing happened - a European scientific journal is using one of my paintings as their cover this month. Here is my "Blue Mitosis" on the cover of the EMBO Journal - that's the journal of The European Molecular Biology Organization, y'know.  And here it is online - I like how they used the image to make a banner for the page also. I have another special secret project planned with this image, so stay tuned.

Upcoming Events - updated

Lots of stuff on the calendar for the next couple of months, including the return of Artomatic starting on May 18 in Crystal City. If you've never been, Artomatic is an absolutely unmissable event, with tons of art, music, and general craziness. You can find my work on the 9th floor. I'll post pictures as my space comes together.

Other places to find me:


May 6                     First Sunday Arts Festival, Annapolis

    

May 18 - June 23      Artomatic, Arlington VA

May 27                    SoWeBo Festival, Baltimore   

                    

June 2                     Flea Market at AVAM, Baltimore  + Meet the artist night at Artomatic, 7-9 pm

June 9                    Artomatic Marketplace

June 16-17            Old Town Arts & Crafts Festival, Alexandria VA

July 1                     First Sunday Arts Festival, Annapolis 

Stay tuned for more.

My Cells are on the Cover of a Book!

A little reminder that good things come to those who post. About two months ago, I got a message via my etsy shop from someone who had seen my paintings of malaria in red blood cells online. I get messages like this from time to time, usually from bloggers and researchers. Which is very cool, but not as cool as this one, which was from a publisher who wanted to use my blood cells on the cover of a novel! 

The book, The Heart Broke In, a novel by British author James Meek, has a medical researcher as one of its main characters - hence the blood cells.  (http://amzn.com/0374168717)

Of course I said yes, and immediately started practicing painting pages and pages of red blood cells, which is why there are so many in my etsy shop right now.  After a few days, I came up with a good-looking bunch of erythrocytes in various stages of infection with p. falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria. I sent them off to Jennifer at  Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and held my breath.

Fortunately, FSG liked them too, and their graphic designer created a beautiful cover with watercolor-style lettering. And I got paid : ) 

A little kicker to this tale - I wanted to find out more about the book's author, James Meek. I chose one of his earlier novels to read - The People's Act of Love, (http://amzn.com/1841957062)  from 2005.  I picked it because it was set in Russia and I used to live there. I loved the book, and from the author blurb I worked out that James Meek had lived in Russia the same time I did,  and started to wonder if we had any mutual friends. On a hunch, I asked Jamie Coomarasamy, a BBC reporter in London who was also an old Russia hand, if he knew James. Turns out they have known each other for years and had dinner together a few weeks earlier *and they discussed the cover* (O.o)

So, my friends, while it's true that the internet is full of scammers, spammers and ranters, it's also full of art, science and literature, all stitched together with connections that otherwise would never have been made. The Heart Broke In is out in October from Farrar, Straus and Giroux. I'll remind you to buy it. 

 

Some Images from Our Small Rooms

A few images from the "Our Small Rooms" exhibit at the Cafritz Arts Center, featuring my work and Kendall Nordin's. More about the show here and here.

Best Rejection Letter Ever

Hey, I'm an artist. I apply for a lot of stuff, and I get rejected a lot. I don't like getting rejected, and sometimes it makes me cry, but it's part of the game. That said, if you have to tell people their entries were not chosen for something, there are good and bad ways to do it. We've all seen examples of what not to do, but today I received a great example of a kind, supportive and personal rejection. This letter *actually made me feel good*, so I am reprinting an excerpt here:

Dear Michele

Many thanks for taking part again in our Cover Contest. We had another great time here at [redacted], looking through more than 1,500 submitted images. The quality of the submissions was as high as ever, and the jury had the wonderfully difficult duty of pre-screening and evaluating all submissions. Only the 500 most promising pictures were included in the final round of scoring, which means that many good-quality submissions could not be considered in full detail.

I am glad to let you know that the jury decided to include all of your submissions in the final round:

“Blue Mitosis” (m-m-banks-33445.tif) reached place 102 in the non-scientific section of the contest (a perfect 10 in my book); “Petri Dishes 1” (m-m-banks-23765.tif) reached place 134 in the non-scientific part of the contest; “Blue and Green Petri Dishes” (m-m-banks44662.tif) was ranked 174th (another one of my personal favourites, actually).

Congratulations!

Like in previous years, the jury and the editors will also select a small number of images for future covers of [redacted]. Would you like us to keep your pictures under consideration for this selection, or would you rather have us delete the corresponding files from our records?

Thank you very much again for participating in our little contest. We hope that you enjoyed it as much as we did.

Kind regards and best wishes

[Really nice guy]

Now everybody else do this.

Our Small Rooms at the Cafritz Arts Center

A little more about the Montgomery College Show, which opens today. (Essential info is here) Don't forget, the reception is Thursday, February 9, from 6-8 pm.

This exhibit is part of a year-long series that Montgomery College is sponsoring called "Intersections: Where Art Meets Science"

Some background about the artists - we're both based in DC. I mainly work in watercolor and collage, and most of my work over the last few years has been focused on scientific themes. I was recently featured on the Scientific American arts blog, Symbiartic, talking, among other things, about how I got started painting scientific subjects.

One of the paintings in this show, From the Cells to the Stars, was created in response to a friend's death and Carl Sagan's idea that humans are made of "star stuff". I blogged about it here and it was featured on Brainpickings. This show will be the first time the painting is exhibited in public.

I also feature paintings of bacteria and viruses (those are viruses above). Although we normally consider these to be invaders, viruses and bacteria are a huge part of our bodies playing vital functions in everything from digestion to cognition.

Another piece, Portrait of a Human, is a series of 16 panels, each with a specific cell type, from retinal cells to bone marrow to neurons. This is a brand-new piece created specifically for this exhibit.

Kendall Nordin is a multi-disciplinary artist. For the past decade her practice has focused on visual art, performance, and music. Her visual work has been exhibited in the US, Australia, and Estonia and is included in the viewing program of The Drawing Center, NYC. In the past year, exhibition venues for her work include the Container Space Gallery, Low Lives Festival, the DC Convention Center, Pulse Art Fair in Miami, Porch Projects, Gallaudet University, and the (e)merge Art Fair.

Nordin's video piece, Artists Throwing Rocks (see it here: http://vimeo.com/nordin) was selected for the (e)merge Art Fair in 2011. Her work for this exhibit consists of a site-specific installation on the theme of the cell.

More of my work can be found here and Kendall Nordin's here