The Science of Art
[Guest entry from Amanda Koehler, associate editor of ADVANCE for Medical Laboratory Professionals]
Many people say there is a strong correlation between science and art. One person who wholeheartedly agrees with this statement is Darlene Katz, an oil painter who started out as an immunologist.
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ART SAMPLING: Darlene Katz's
painting "Garcon."
ADVANCE thanks Darlene Katz |
Starting Out
For Katz, who was born and raised in Syracuse, NY, art and science were intertwined right from the get-go.
"I was always interested in both science and8 art starting when I was a young kid," she explained. "I had doctors in my family, and I was accustomed to that kind of life and hearing about those things. My mom had been taking some immunology courses when I was young. I went into grad school and did immunology, and I always did artwork on the side."
"It was just a relaxing thing for me and it just seemed to work different areas of the brain. As a matter of fact, I was trying to make a decision if I should go into science or art. I talked to a gentleman who was a microbiologist, and he said if you have a God-given gift of being a creative artist, you should go and do that--those kinds of gifts don't come easy in this world. I went to an artist I knew and she said I could be a good artist. But my mom said I needed to go into something that paid well and do art on the side."
Taking Mom's advice to heart, Katz got her doctorate in immunology at SUNY at Buffalo. Afterwards, she moved to San Diego and did some post doctorate work in tissue typing and compliment assays.
She was working on chronic mono markers when she decided she didn't want to do basic research anymore. She wanted to get involved with a clinical start-up company, so she went to the Graduate School of Business at San Diego State University. After she was there for about a year, she got her first clinical research job that put her in charge of heading up clinical trials and doing consulting work with different companies.
The Switch
After a while, Katz decided to leave her job. "I left because I really wanted to be at home more with my children," she explained. "So I came home and started doing more consulting. Eventually, the consulting petered out and the artwork started taking up more of my time and I got more serious about it."
Even though she was surrounded by a family of doctors, including her husband, sister and brother-in-law, her loved ones supported Katz's career switch.
"They knew I had talent and it was something I really wanted to do, and I was in a position where I could do it," Katz told ADVANCE. "The path to success isn't really laid out--it's a struggle. Painting requires a lot of forethought, a lot of planning and a lot of work. When someone says to me, 'How long did it take you to paint that painting?,' I say, 'A few hours and 15 years of experience.'"
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PLAY DAY: Darlene Katz's painting
"At Play on the Beach."
ADVANCE thanks Darlene Katz |
Katz received art training at Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY, and Northwestern University, Chicago. She paints landscape, still life, composition and portrait oil paintings and she sells them on her Web site,
http://www.studiokatz.com/. She has also worked with pencil, charcoal and clay sculpture. Katz participates in many exhibits in California.
She no longer keeps up with the immunology field, but her son is taking an immunology class. "He thinks it's pretty hard but pretty interesting," Katz noted. "He's learning about things we didn't know about in grad school."
Two Interrelated Disciplines
Katz believes scientists and artists should use the skills of each other to be better in their respective fields. "I think scientists who are the most successful are those who really use their creativity, even though they are technically trained," she said. "They really have to use both sides of their brain. The same thing is true with art. I know a lot of people who are artists who have some sort of medical or scientific degree. It's a huge number."