Artist // Julia BreckenridgeArtist Biography // Africa was my place of birth, minerals and their colours became my all absorbing interest. Then science dominated my life and now the desire to share the beauty I see in minerals and how they reflect light has become a passion.
Title // Fluorite, exhibiting Fluorescence
Title // Specular Hematite, exhibiting Specular reflection
Title // Labradorite, exhibiting Labradorescence
Artist // Hadyn Butler
Artist Biography // I am a field geologist (trained in Australia) with 54 active years in the mining exploration industry globally. Art has always been a passion since geological maps (mapping nature) commonly present "artistic patterns." As a colourist, I have been creating art-glass portraits (copper-foil technique) for nearly 40 years. Challenge 1, the results have to be recognizable as the person: Challenge 2, to utilize the exterior landscape and daily light changes as part of the design. "Science" and "art" are innate to human beings. The notion that they are "separate fields" is a byproduct of language symbology and other artificial cultural assumptions - a kind of absurd tribalism. Biological evolution has given us curiosity and opposable thumbs. So we create! It takes about 200 hours to design and make my art-glass portraits using the copper-foil technique. Thus, the focus of my work is on the people that I admire, many of whom are "scientists."
Title // Jocelyn Bell
"Jocelyn Bell (now Dame Susan Jocelyn Bell Burrell, DBE FRS FRSE FRAS FInstP), the “astrophysicist student” that in 1967 “co-discovered” radio signals from neutron stars – the densest known stars in the universe – not quite black holes. Since she found the first signals on the print-out paper roll, it was quite natural for the Swedish committee to give her supervisors the Nobel Prize for the discovery – although that is not how they phrased it. Her glaringly obvious omission from the Nobel Prize was deemed outrageous by many astronomers and other scientists at the time."
"Dirac predicted free positive charges in the vacuum. These turned out to be positrons. At the time, they were called ‘Dirac holes’. Hence, positron-electron pairs in the panel show positrons as holes. Dirac also mathematically predicted the existence of magnetic monopoles (now confirmed in certain artificial materials that act as if they have magnetic monopoles). He was the first to mathematically the quantum mechanics to special relativity. He got the Nobel Prize in a normal manner."
Artist // Erica Caden
Artist Biography // Dr. Erica Caden is a Research Scientist at SNOLAB working on the neutrino experiments there: SNO+, HALO, and nEXO. She has a passion for science outreach and sees Sci-Art as a great medium for that work. The SNO+ Detector is a 92-sided geodesic sphere, and the event display can be flattened and refolded into a simplified 20-sided sphere. Here we show a handful of data, calibration, and background events as a child's mobile.
Title // Goodnight Detector
Artist // Jenna Daypuck
Artist Biography // Jenna Daypuk is a recent graduate of the Biochemistry program at Laurentian University. Growing up, she was actively involved in the arts community in her hometown, and she enjoyed having the opportunity to combine her passions for science and art with this piece. “DNA microarrays are used to measure the expression level of thousands of genes simultaneously. This technology allows us to study genetic variation between individuals. This piece is interactive: choose to turn on one, two, three, or all four of the switches (located on the sides of the piece) to see your microarray.”
Title // DNA Microarray
Artist // Katie Fenerty
Artist Biography // Katie Fenerty is an artist, educator, wilderness guide and arts-facilitator living in Sudbury, ON. Artwork she creates is developed out of a curiosity for the earth; and a drive to experiment with, understand, manipulate and share materials and experiences that come from exploring it. It is inspired by the things we can and cannot see; the micro and macro creatures and connections existing all around us that shape the powerful yet fragile landscape; and the environments in which we live and adventure. Her work thoughtfully reflects concepts living in the realms of natural and earth sciences, while edging on the boundaries of pseudo-scientific or supernatural perspective. The artist continues to work towards an awareness and implementation of sustainable and environmentally responsible art production methods.
Title // The Imposters
Artist // Teagan Neufield
Artist Biography // Teagan Neufeld is a first year graduate student in the MSc. Biology program at Laurentian University working with the neuroscience department. She graduated with honours from the behavioural neuroscience program in spring 2018. Her current work looks at the effect of subtle variations on biological systems. “In the behavioural neuroscience program, you’re required to take a class called neuroanatomy. During the lab portion of said class, we examine human brain slices. Real human brain slices, like the one my felt piece was modelled after. There’s nothing better than hands on learning but we can’t forget to take a step back and not only respect but appreciate the fact that when you're holding a slice, you're holding what was once someone's whole world.”
Title // A Little Slice of Coronal
Artist // Amanda Perry
Artist Biography // Amanda Perry is a multifaceted artist that works in a variety of mediums. As with people, each medium has its own individuality and the combinations are endless. Her work often features dinosaurs and other creatures from natural history but often with an illustrative and fantastical twist. Amanda loves to express herself through colourful and quirky imagery. The two pieces here, “that Moment When” and “The Underrepresented”, both showcase creatures from prehistoric times. The first piece mentioned features a Compsagnathus chasing a dragonfly. Often in paleoart a dark and dangerous time is predicted but this work shows another side to the land that time forgot. The bright colours used shows the playful nature of the piece. The later piece shows a Dicephalic (two-headed) Smilodon with an almost sense of sibling rivalry. Although there is record in the rock of these types of creatures there are often not depicted in artwork - and this is why this piece was created.
Title // The Moment When
Title // The Underrepresented
Artist // Isabelle Ratte (Zab)
Artist Biography // Zab is a multidisciplinary artist, equally creative with the saw, the blowtorch, the brush and the bow. She blends everyday items to recycle, repurpose and create. An accomplished musician, Zab sings, plays cello, bass, guitar, ukulele and violin. The artistic medium used to create these 3 sculptures enabled her to bring art and science together. By assembling recycled objects which were engineered for scientific use, she was able to create renditions of living organisms and everyday objects.
Title // Illuminated Guitar Player
Title // Crazy Old Dog
Title // Industrial Ballerina
Artist // Gillian Schultze
Artist Biography // Gillian Schultze is an up-and-coming mixed media and textile artist from Northern Ontario. She draws her inspiration from the world around her. Gillian's work can be found in private collections across the country and is growing in popularity because her pieces are tactile, whimsical, colourful, unique and full of life. This piece entitled "Northern Roots" and is mixed media on raw cotton. It is hand and thread-painted with embroidery stars and sky.
Artwork Description // The solar system is made up of the sun and everything that orbits around it, including planets, moons, asteroids, comets and meteoroids. The earth system (or biosphere) is all living component of the earth (humans, plants, animals, bacteria, fungi, protists and all microscopic organisms on land, in the air and in the oceans). This piece is a a whimsical interpretation of both of these systems using the iconic northern white pine to illustrate their interconnectedness.
Title // Northern Roots
Artist // Gene Solomon
Artist Biography // Gene Solomon is a multidisciplinary artist residing in Sudbury, Ontario. Raised in picturesque Killarney with a spiritual connection to nature. He shares his love of nature through his indigenous artwork using wood, stone, antlers and canvas. The theme for this project, "The Importance of Water," is a serious subject that we all need to be aware of. Without clean water there would be no life on our planet.
Title // Water is Life
b>Artist // Elizabeth Wenghofer
Artist Biography // Elizabeth Wenghofer is a professor in the School of Rural and Northern Health at Laurentian University. Born and raised in suburban Ontario, Elizabeth was drawn to the beauty and austerity of Northern Ontario from a young age. She now lives off-grid in a remote location and is inspired by the ecosystem around her. Her art draws on the vibrant colour and rugged texture of the geology and life cycles of the north. Each pieces attempts to capture a glimpse of the seeming contradiction between impermanence and endurance of nature. This piece, “Stones and Bones”, represents the endurance of life and growth as it is captured in bones, fossils and stone.
Title // Stones and Bones
Artists // Sydney Rose & Karen YlitaloArtist Biography - Sydney Rose // Sydney Rose is a Sudbury-based analog collage artist. A graduate of the OCAD U photography program, she has since turned from a digital tool set to using outdated reference books, scissors and glue to create remixed compositions that explore ideas of the human experience.
Artist Biography - Karen Ylitalo // Karen Ylitalo is an emerging visual artist in Sudbury. Originally from the French River area, Karen has been driven to create and connect with her natural surroundings from an early age. Working with glass as a medium has transformed how she interprets her observations of light and how it interacts with her surroundings.
Artist Statement // Our story is one of destruction - of lust and loss, industry and progress and the fall out. At the same time, our story is one of reclamation - of realization, restoration and renewal. We’ve blackened this landscape and sprouted a new future but none of that exists in a bubble. As artists and scientists, we are able to look backwards, forwards, underneath and around - to examine the microscopic details and relate those findings to the biggest picture we can capture of our little crater.
Title // The Bigger Picture
