Printmaking at the intersection of art and science

When I was younger, my favorite subjects were art on the one hand and physics on the other. I decided that it was easier to pursue art on my own than it would be to attempt to be a modern-day amateur scientist. So I opened my shop as a postdoctoral fellow, working as a marine geophysicist by day and printmaker by night. My work involved building machines and going to sea to image what is below the ocean floor, which kept the spatial-numerical left-half of my brain occupied, but I couldn't survive unless I kept the pictorial right-brain happy, so I need to create art. Right now, I balance my art-making with science communication, running the Toronto Etsy Street Team and raising my baby son.

I make a lot of different things. My shop, "things from secret minouette places" is filled with block prints on beautiful Japanese paper and on textiles. Part of the magic and beauty of printmaking is the possibility of making multiples. This allows me to create original art at a very reasonable price.

I focus mainly on linoleum block prints. The process begins with drawing an image in reverse on linoleum and carving away the negative space. I use a tool called a brayer (like a paint-roller) to apply ink to the lino block. Then I take my paper or fabric, lay it on the inked block, and burnish the image onto it with another tool called a baren. The baren was developed for Japanese woodblock prints. Mine consists of a flat, but textured, disk wrapped in a bamboo leaf. To make another image, I simply apply more ink to the block and repeat.

I also make things from the printed textiles, like pillows, stuffed animals and ornaments. Sometimes I make wood block prints (in the traditional Japanese 'moku hanga' way), screenprints (also known as silkscreen or serigraph prints) and lately, more multimedia work. I love the idea of combining my scientific and technical knowledge with my art making; I've begun incorporating some electronic circuits in my artwork to allow it to interact with the viewer, for instance by lighting up, changing colour or making sounds or music.

I think the intersection of art and science is fascinating and a creative inspiration. My subject matter includes a lot of natural history (flora and fauna, some of which I've had the pleasure of observing at sea), scientists and the history of science, and some myths and legends (which served, once upon a time, to explain the world around us, as a sort of proto-science). I'm really interested in Cabinets of Curiosity (or wonder - the wunderkammer) kept by avid amateurs from the Renaissance up until the 19th century. People had huge collections of natural wonders: rocks, gems, fossils, butterflies, shells, bones, all sorts of plants and animals, real and imaginary. Science and magic were still intertwined. These collections both fostered myth (such as narwhal horns passed off as unicorn) and the development of descriptive science (including geology, paleontology, botany and zoology). I think of my shop as a Cabinet of Curiosity. It's filled with specimens from natural history (with the odd harpy or unicorn thrown in for good measure).