SCIENCE AND ART

A CLOSE ALLIANCE 
Art and Science

Earth's Atmosphere has little friction which allows stars and planets to move freely along their path….from google image, for education only

I have always thought music and math had an affinity for one another and visual art was more closely aligned with science.  Dali thought so as well.  He met often with the brightest scientific minds of his day.  He was mesmerized with the concept of DNA.  The new Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida has stairs that are designed after a helix.

Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida

Originally there were to be a double helix, but the building design did not allow for it.  The building it self is a hexagon. The same architectural firm that designed the triangle addition to the Louvre. 
For more information on Dali and the Dali Museum contact Peter Tush, Education Director.

Dali Museum with Hexagon Shapes on outside of building

A celestial storm                        from google image for education only

My Mother was a science teacher and I think it was her love of nature and science that influenced me to become an artist.

She taught us about the constellations, fossils, and the call of birds.  We opened geodes to find the crystalline beauty within, and we pieced together bones of ancient peoples who once lived on the coastal regions of Florida.  

Geodes like the ones we found on Ballest Point, Tampa

We looked through microscopes 
a
and telescopes to learn about the world around us. We had chemistry kits, and made light come alive without plugs, and volcanoes erupt with baking soda, and learned how apples

and onions can taste alike if ones nose is pinched. Life was a constant wonder and the exploration of our world fascinating.  I think growing up with my Mother was like one big science class in continual flux. 

The beauty of the world under the microscope…

Even the most deadly of diseases can look beautiful under the microscope  from google of education only

I ran across this article on the contribution of artists to science and found it very interesting…here is a section for you to read below for the full article just hit link.  It is a wonderful piece about the value of art to science.
The Contribution of the Artist to the Scientific Visualization

a paper given by Vibeke Sorensen

in a talk at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California 1987

"An artist is many things, but generally it could be said that artists are individuals who are working towards a deeper understanding go the world in and around them.  Artists are acutely sensitive to the environment, organizers of large amounts of data into an aesthetic expression of his or her world.  Artists are the explainers and representers, pattern matchers, people who find unusual relationships between events and images.  Artists are creative interdisciplinarians.  They rework and integrate information subject to functions and tests, render or give data shape, express essence and make clear.  They help us to see in new ways and understand that which is difficult to see, making the invisible visible.

Artists are idea people, creators, and conceptualizers, predictors, people with ideas connected to the future.  They are people who create something completely original and new, something beyond the known boundaries of the information base.  By using or inventing tools, they show new uses and applications that synergize and synthesize fields.  Artist push the limits of technologies, bringing them to previously unattained goals.  They see the next steps, make leaps, put together elements in new and powerful ways.

Artists are bridges to the rest of the world. They understand perception and know how to communicate information.  They know the technologies and language of media.  Their work is linked to the general population as their inventions and ideas translate directly, often seen as improvements in understanding and the quality of life, improvements upon less efficient and more laborious methods of working, becoming mainstream as society discovers their work and catches up."

I can also remember when I was first introduced to the Scientific Method and thought someone had handed me a key to the universe! I thought oh what a practical way to make sense of solving any problems or questions one has.  It occurred to me how similar it is to the artistic process. 

The exploration of our world our space, the sensitivity to all of its nuances and connection make science and art natural partners. Check out the first link I provided for you on artists who use science in their work and then for fun track the space station live as it moves around the Earth!

Below are two sites for you to enjoy..one links you to artist using science in art work and the other to the Space Station live as it rotates around the world.

Artists who Use Science in Their Work 

The Space Station Live.  

Salvador Dali and Science

Last night I attended a function at the Dali museum in St. Petersburg, Florida in which we were to listen to a speaker.  For some reason the speaker could not be there and instead we watched a wonderful film on Dali and Science.  When I first studied art, Dali was not someone who I cared for, or truthfully understood, as a young college art student.  Later, as I did more art and begin to show my work, I begin to see something that I had not before.  Then the Dali museum was built and the American collection brought here to Florida.  I took my students many times and began to look at his work more and more.  It dawned on me what a genius he was and a true master artist. I also began to understand that I was more a surrealist than I had known.
Science, psychology, and symbols were places I felt comfortable.  My Mother was a science teacher and had an endless fascination with physics, chemistry, medicine, biology and nature.  These were subjects that I roamed in and out of as a child and now as an adult.  I see them reflected in my work and interest as an ever present force. I am captivated by Einstein's theory of relativity, the string theory and quantum physics.  The concept of time being non-linear is absolutely fascinating.
Dali was interest in the scientists of his day.  He was fortunate to meet many of the most foremost thinkers of his time.  He persistently tried to meet Freud, whose thoughts of dream imagery and sexual repression, were of great interest to Dali.  Dali finally got to meet Freud in London and Freud was to have said after seeing one of Dali's paintings," I guess not all Surrealist are drunkards and vagrants, I had best rethink this".  Dali was interested in Einsteins theories and other scientist of the time.  At times scientist looked at his work for ideas that visually represented some of their theories.  From the double helix to the idea of nuclear force and disintegration to the meaning of time and movement Dali's curious mind was ever exploring.   He felt art and science should not be separate from each other and that artists and scientist should collaborate.  Right before his death scientist gathered at his Museum in Figures, Spain to talk to each other about science and art at conference.  Dali was to ill to attend, but watched on a close circuit tv with great interest.
I am including this link to the Dali museum and a talk by a wonderful friend of mine, Peter Tush.  Peter is the education director at the Florida Dali Museum.  Click on Peter Tush and you will be directed to the link.