Art = Science for Nightlife at the Museum

When I was accepted to join a contingent of Artspan artists to make art live at the California Academy of Sciences Nightlife Gallery Crawl night, I decided it would be a good way to discuss how science and art can been seen as the same thing. They are both methods for studying the world.

I set up in the Galapagos section of the museum* and began studying Lonesome George - the last tortoise on Pinta island. George deserves to be remembered (long live George!). 

I started with a few portraits of George from an oversize photo, then I continued with a more abstract investigation of George’s tortoiseness - and all of his tortoise textures. My mind and subconscious became the instruments I used to take measurements.

Then the lively scene around me captured my attention. Adults strolling around the museum, drinks in hand, enjoying science and art. I made a painting of the crowd and a drawing of Josh Coffey www.Undersong.com who was painting nearby in the underwater specimen section of the exhibit.

*As I learned many times over from a repeating video, many samples were collected from Galapagos in 1906 while the original California Academy of Sciences was incinerated following the San Francisco earthquake.