Tissue-Engineered Art

The above image, "Victimless Leather", a living, growing mouse tissue coat, was one of the works in “Design and the Elastic Mind,” the 2008 exhibition at MoMA curated by Paola Antonelli. This exhibit is a prime example of my proclaimed Neo-organicism movement, where science and art come together using biology as a medium to raise some very important questions about the future of science and organic life.

For a narrated slide show of the exhibit by Paola Antonelli click here.

On Truth and Beauty

This video is a conversation between theoretical physicist, Janna Levin and writer, Johnathan Lethem about the metaphorical language of Truth and Beauty. I stumbled upon this video through Seed Magazine about a year after Todd Bartel, (one of my artist teachers in grad school) sent me a link to an NPR interview with Janna Levin about her book A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines. He saw a connection between the concepts discussed in the book and interview to the ideas and issues that I was dealing with to a large part in my work. So too, I believe that the concepts and issues discussed in the video are issues that every artist and writer deal with and could benefit from hearing.

Neo-Organicism; A Return to Nature

My artwork has always contained an organic element- symbols and traces of seeds, pods, leaves and vines are in nearly every piece. Even my more abstract paintings appear mysteriously landscape-ish. Now I wouldn't categorize myself as a Nature or landscape artist. Most landscape artists are interested in capturing the beauty of Nature. It's not the beauty of Nature I'm interested in per se (although, I admit, it is hard to avoid). I am interested in the role of Nature; it's intrinsic creative function as a biological organism and our place within it. Recently my work has taken a more conscious "Green" swing. Not because it's in fashion but because of a deep inner compulsion for a return to Nature. (A return to the primordial womb?) It is true however, that Nature (Green/Organic) IS in fashion right now! One may speculate the causes and motivation behind this trend: diminishing forests, urbanization, global warming, depleted natural resources, genetically modified foods... But the fact remains that there is a definite collective trend happening! It seems appropriate therefore to reinstate the movement of Organicism (the philosophy & history to be discussed in another blog) as "Neo-Organicism" to represent this current movement which is emerging and manifesting visually through Artists, Designers, Media, Engineers, and Architects through out the world. For the past year I have been engaged in an investigation of these visual manifestations in their various forms and have posted some of the most powerful examples below.