Art and Science Series
Past Events
In this web series we will explore the intersections of art and science.
No. 4 - "Dancing in the Borderland: The Past, Present & Future"
A presentation by Diane Ullman and Emily Meineke
March 23, 2025
The connections between art and science came to life in 1995 when University of California Davis Professor Diane Ullman and artist Donna Billick had a late-night epiphany about using art to teach insect science that gave birth to an undergraduate course at UC Davis called Art, Science and the World of Insects. Insect themed lectures combined with hands-on studio sessions synergized creativity and led to exciting individual student projects and collaborations resulting in large-scale public artworks permanently installed in Washington D.C., the Davis community and the UC Davis campus, as well as formation of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program (cofounded by Ullman and Billick). In 2020, Assistant Professor Emily Meineke joined UC Davis, and she is carrying the connections between art and science forward. This presentation celebrates the creation of this teaching paradigm, its accomplishments and its future
No. 3- "Color Histories in a Contemporary Art Practice"
A presentation by Patricia Miranda
April 25, 2024
Miranda’s work is informed by her decades-long research into the history of art technologies. Her research focuses on materials with long cultural, political, and social histories, especially pre-industrial natural dyes and pigments. In her work she creates color from raw materials such as cochineal, malachite, clay, oak gall, and black walnuts. She works with these materials in textile works and in handmade paint using binders from gum arabic to distemper to egg tempera. She is interested in the conceptual potential of color, and how materials offer a language for content through their history, context, physical and aesthetic properties. Considerations of the environmental impact of materials offers an additional framework for a sustainable safe studio practice.
No. 2- "Communicating Science to Native Communities through Native-themed and Native-created art"
A presentation by Mallery Quetawki
November 12, 2023
Mallery was the first Artist in Residence of the Community Environmental Health Program (CEHP) in 2016, where she worked to tailor the programs scientific research communications to be more culturally inclusive and relatable. She has since created acrylic paintings and digital artwork to portray the complexities of biochemical pathways and other health related information through an indigenous lens. This “lens” is a product of Mallery’s Pueblo upbringing, her college science education, and the collaborations between keepers of indigenous knowledge and the researchers involved in a wide range of CEHP projects. The goals for the artist in residence program are to translate science, bridge bi-directional communication, and create an inclusive environment so that collaborating indigenous communities are informed and represented throughout the process from research to healthcare.
No. 1- "Artistic Musings of a Disease Ecologist"
A presentation by Nina Sokolov
March 19, 2023
Nina is a disease ecologist who fell in love with the world of insects when she started to draw them. With a microscope and pen, she began studying pinned specimens from museum collections and becoming familiar with insect anatomy. Nina is a PhD candidate in Biology at UC Berkeley, where she studies bees and their viruses to understand how diseases can be contributing to declines of these important pollinators. She uses her artistic skills to determine the fine-scale differences between species that can closely resemble one another. Additionally, she has begun illustrating native bee coloring books to teach kids about the diversity of bees. In this talk Nina will discuss how she uses art in her science to learn about the species she’s studying, communicate her findings to scientists and to the public, and get people excited about insect conservation. Nina will also be doing a digital drawing demonstrations of a bee, and she’ll answer questions about art, science, and bees while we follow along.