Art

Item Description

ARTIST:      William Chambers
TITLE:         Potion 2
MEDIUM:    Mixed media painting, 16” x 20”, unframed
 

This original artwork was created for Art on Science: 26 études an internattional portfolio featuring pictures by artists and words by scientists. This written commentary is by Jonathan Garlick, Biomedical Stem CellLab at  Tufts University:
 
By building human tissues from their component cells, our laboratory seeks new treatments for diseases that currently have no cures. This tissue engineering approach grows human “lab-made skin” which closely mimics human skin to meet two research goals: The first is to use cells from patients with chronic diseases to better understand how we can regenerate and repair diseased or damaged tissues and organs and restore the health of tissues. We do this in two diseases, scleroderma and non-healing wounds in diabetic patients. A second goal is to use “lab-made skin” to test drugs and improve the lives of patients with these conditions. This is a more predictive way to study drug benefits than to use lab mice alone.

This artwork closely represents the spirit and practice of the work in our lab. I associate the round dishes with our “labmade skin” which have interesting red structures that arise like “living” brains. This is a call to “humanize” our research field by moving drug testing and research into human tissues. There seems to be a tension between the “experimental” mice and the human tissues growing in the dishes. The mice are asserting that we need both “lab-made skin” and mice to understand diseases and develop better treatments. The bottle in the middle holds the “elixir”, the unknown and uncertain outcome of our research and the cure we aspire to find.
 
We experiment in our lab through trial and error. We don’t seek the right answer but only hope to ask the right question. We value the iterative nature of the scientific method so we can speculate, test, observe and take a step back in wonder and contemplate our next question. This method values
complexity and confronts uncertainty. We use technique to push against the boundaries of lab protocol and practice, and this feels more like art than science. I think about the artistic process in exactly the same way.

Item Special Note

Free domestic shipping.

All artworks are 16” x 20”, unframed and will be shipped with a printed copy of the scientist’s text.

For further information about the portfolio, please visit our Art on Science: 26 études website: http://AS26project.com