beautiful west texas

Can't wait to get out there and start looking for butterflies. In west Texas.

... reflections on the creative origins of art + science

I'm not sure about that sub-title. I like sub-titles, though. It's another layer of meaning. Especially since "thread-tail" doesn't really tell you anything at all about what this blog is about.
But, really? It's a little vague, and a little presumptuous perhaps.
I really do want to think about the role of creative thinking in the sciences, though, and the connections that can be made between science and the arts. And I want to do more in translating science in the arts, than using some kind of technology to produce art.
The other link between these two fields, in my life: I can't deny that I have had a hard time figuring out which direction to take career-wise, and kept trying to bin myself into one camp or another. I am definitely a flaky, spacey, dreamy, impractical, attention-span-of-a-flea artsy type person. But then again I can be cool, cerebral, pensive, moody, dark, quiet, and downright analytical about every aspect of my life. Again, who am I?
Why have I chosen to go with science again? I can't stand having to answer phones 8-5, sit at a desk, and do mundane tasks. OK they weren't always mundane. But they weren't my projects or ideas that were being explored. That was the kicker I guess. If I'm going to occupy 40+ hours of my week on rote tasks, then at least, let me be the one to dream them up! For example, picking up near-microscopic freshly-hatched caterpillars from petri dishes and brushing them EVER SO gently upon the branches of their host plant, so they can proceed to eat eat eat and grow up big 'n strong (or not). Do that, every day, for 4-5 months. Also clean up their poop and give them more to eat. DOES THE FUN NEVER END???
So, I wanted to go back to science, so that I could set my own schedule, ask questions I am interested in, and get to work building a career out of it. If I have to clean up a little bug poop now and then, so be it.
The other part of it is, I really love being a student. I love learning, listening, reading, writing, the whole bit. I love tests, as a way to prove to myself that I can remember shit. It's very important to me. It's also like a game, and a puzzle. I like to solve things, and pretend that I'm clever. Learning Japanese was like this for me. What a puzzle a foreign language is!!!
But where does this leave the artsy person that also is me? Pretty damn frustrated... where is the balance, I have to find the balance...
The danger I have to look out for, is I don't want to ever feel stifled in my scientific pursuits. Science requires objectivity, data, hard lines. I'm not a hard-line kind of person. I like wavy lines, or broken lines, or when you use the side of your pencil to make a broad stroke, kind of lines. So if I start to feel boxed-in, or cornered, is when I have to be careful. I will be either passive-aggressive, lazy, or worse, just up and quit. I can't do that. Anyone who reads this and knows me-- please give me a good swift kick in the ass if I start exhibiting signs of flaking out.
But the more I get into the work I'm doing, the more opportunities I see to get creative (not in a scientifically suspect kind of way) but in research design, or thinking of your question, and the many different ways you can approach getting to an answer...
All in all I'm very (happy) (content) (pleased) with where I am. I try to dutifully not take anything for granted. I try to keep my artsy side happy. Time for one more glass of wine...

in-aug-u-RA-tion

I would be remiss in my postings, if I did not mention my impression of the inauguration today. I watched it. Wow, they can really fill the time on the major networks, can't they? There was coverage in the morning, before the inauguration, and I thought after the ceremony, the coverage would come to a close. Nope. Had to cover the caravan out! And talk, and talk, and talk.
I was really pleased to see a nice little composition included in the ceremony this morning (Yo-Yo Ma!). It's good to get some of the arts out there, with all the world watching! And yeah, Obama's speech wasn't bad, either.
As for his words... I love the NYT coverage. Lots of cool interactive-media-type stuff. For example, a graphic of what words were used most during the speech. Early on he used the phrase, "... subject to data and statistics." That got my attention. He also said, "... we will restore science to its rightful place." Hooray! You mean, as a source of (objective) (facts) and un-spun, non-political information? We can only hope. Understanding the link between scientific research and public policy is in itself an entire discipline.

in-progress02d

a re-reading of past posts

My goodness. I hadn't bothered to really re-read the older posts from this blog. Which, by the by, used to be called "sekai no omoshiroi koto" or, "interesting things in my life." I wanted to only post when something interesting was going on. I wrote sometimes while I was at work, about going to graduate school, and about adopting Rocky & Dylan, and about Lee.

Well, I'm in graduate school. It wasn't as hard as I thought to get back into the swing of things, although I do find it challenging. I'm constantly vigilant of what I need to be doing. (Which I'm sure does not include writing this blog). I need to read more. I need to work on filling in all of those gaps I worry over so much. I need to make sure I know what the hell I will be doing and where I will be going in the field this spring and summer. I need to be prepared to teach the genetics lab and make sure everything is in order. I need to get back in the genetics lab and analyze my sequences.

It's really an exciting time, and I know I need to make sure I'm not taking anything for granted. For example, this beautiful day. 75 F and sunny. And it's the middle of January. Butterflies are still out there flying. You know what they're doing in the Midwest now? Freezing their a**es off. No, thank you.

I'm just writing and thinking a bit before classes start again. I checked out a few books, downloaded a few more articles, went to half-price and purchased "The Green Phoenix: A History of Genetically Modified Plants" by Paul Lurquin of Washington State, and "Dancing Naked in the Mind Field" by Kary Mullis. Yup, inventor-of-the-PCR Mullis. Quite a fascinating read.

There is something that has been bothering me: I haven't been painting or drawing much. I would really like to pick that up again. I tinker now and then, but what I would really like to do, is embark on a new series of works. I wish I had about a dozen 4'x5' canvas-stretched-over-masonite panels to work on. Oh, and a bit of spare time. The trouble is (and I predicted this according to my older blog posts) when I have spare time, I feel like I should be reading or writing. I feel out of sorts if I'm doing anything else now, including having fun. That's a bummer, isn't it?!

Good thing I think research is fun...

Esther M. Klein Art Gallery

I'm still looking for what I mean when I want to combine art + science, and this is a very good find. However... something is still not quite there for me.

astrology on about.com

I'm a Gemini, mutable air sign, with Mercury in Gemini. I'm extra space-y and ADHD.

"Who the heck am I?:

Mutable signs experience the sense of multiple selves, and sometimes struggle to feel real and solid in themselves. Their sense of identity is loose, and like a kaleidoscope, always changing. But over time, a core sense of self emerges, based on this changeability, but transcending it, too."

-Molly Hall, about.com astrology guide

art + science mash-up

A quick google search found the following*:

"The Future of Science... Is Art?" was the headline of an article today in SEED magazine. I read it and kept smiling to myself. What a call to arms! I need to tuck this article away... full of threads for me to explore. But I still feel... how? How can we do a mash up of art + science in a meaningful and productive way, that does not feel forced or contrived? There is a lot of science in artmaking, what about art in science...

Art & Science Collaborations, Inc.
I always feel conflicted when trying to combine art and science, and yet I am always drawn to ideas similar to those espoused by ASCI.
I do not know where I fit in this kind of group... I am both a scientist (in the making) and an artist (sometimes). I don't use science to inform my art though, and I don't make science-y art. I just happen to thoroughly enjoy and gain fulfillment from both practices. I suppose I enjoy drawing the human form, but even then, I prefer abstraction and the old-school use of the body as a metaphor for human existence in general, or an allegory, even. I don't particularly like the idea of taking an unmodified image of something in the natural world and presenting it as a kind of contemporary art. I just can't help seeing the bacteria or diatom only. Yup, that's a microorganism.

* The first site pulled up was a hair salon based out of Chicago.

in progress-01

touchdown

uninterrupted joy

I started making desktop art... I have a few more to post.

Can host plant specialization lead to speciation in herbivorous insects?

That's the main question to the research I am conducting now. I am interested in population genetics and evolutionary ecology, and the mechanisms of species divergence. I am studying the role and importance of host plant specialization as a barrier to gene flow in the juniper hairstreak butterfly, Mitoura gryneus. Mitoura use trees in the family Cupressaceae, including Juniperus ashei, J. virginiana, and J. pinchotii as host plants in different regions of Texas. I am comparing populations in terms of host plant preference and fitness on the preferred host, as well as genetic differentiation, for host-associated populations that occur together and in geographically separate areas. If specialization and assortative mating on the natal host plant is occurring, then patterns of neutral genetic variation should reflect this.
On a larger (temporal/geographic) scale, I would like to examine Mitoura throughout North America in terms of explaining biogeographic patterns. I want to examine specialization, host switches, adaptive radiation and speciation in some kind of a macroevolutionary framework, and I think giving attention to these little buggies might prove fruitful in this regard.

Ta-daaaa! Three years later, you're still alive...

Wow. I thought I would have more discipline than that. Well, better late than never? I couldn't just up and create a new one. Re-use, re-cycle! I'm so happy it's still here.
I went through Yahoo! 360, I went through MySpace, and most recently, have entertained myself on FaceBook. But I forgot about little ol' Blogger. I'm back.
I'm very interested in the ScienceBlogs site and perhaps if I keep up the good work I will find myself over there someday.
But I'm going to have to get to work over here. I've been a bit of a slacker and let myself get distracted...