Making Waves: an artist’s creative process
A presentation on how science and art enrich each other
by Darcy Johnson, Nanaimo Art Gallery, 2019
Our senses inform the way we understand the world. We use the incoming “information” to construct our reality in many different ways. Several examples would be logical analysis and emotional connection. Our mental processes cannot be separated because they are united in one brain.
We use science to create a predictable structure of knowledge in an attempt to view nature more objectively. Emotion motivates us by giving meaning and purpose to the process of “finding out” about the world and ourselves. Creativity drives the questions we ask that lead to the refinement of the structure of knowledge.
The arts are the great “connectors” of knowledge because they enrich and enliven our view of the world, by making new connections, reorganizing and reordering our world view. When we engage in creative work, as artists or audience, the structure of our knowledge is fleshed out, made personal and yet remains universal because we are all born with the similar mental machinery.
My life long study of neuroscience has grown into a realization that mind, memory and perception pervade my artwork. I try to capture the aetherial sense of consciousness in my abstract drawings and paintings.
Science puts together a solid scaffold we can then jump off of, in the search for creative ideas that often must lie outside of scientific methodologies.
Darcy Johnson, 2017 Intertidal, graphite on paper, 16”X18”
Darcy Johnson, Thought, 2016, 31” X47 “ ink and graphite on paper
SciArt Center Residency, New York City
http://www.sciartinitiative.org/ offers an online residency that connects artists whose creative work is informed by science.
Last year, I collaborated in a 5 month online art residency with neuroscientist and artist, Yana Zorina who lives in NYC. Her art website is https://www.patreon.com/NeuroBead
Yana and I each created a collaborative artwork and a weekly SciArt Center blog about our ideas and creative process. We Skyped at least once a week during this period and communicated images and ideas through email. Our blog along with the other artist/ scientists can be found at. http://www.sciartinitiative.org/bridge-2018.html
I have posted this blog on my own website: http://www.darcyelisejohnson.com/
The finished work from the residency collaboration that started with an electron microscope image of neurons grown from stem cells in Yana’s lab.
Darcy Johnson, 2018, Lost in Manhattan, 36”X36”, acrylic ink on wood
Yana Zorina, Lost in Manhattan, 2018, glass beads on canvas, 10”X10”