Cancer strange attractor (2015), 14” x 24”, acrylic on
paper. Image courtesy of the artist.
MG: Together with professional artist Caroline
Ometz, you have begun a collaborative project
entitled Cancer: Finding Beauty in the Beast.
This project seeks to discover new ways to look at
and understand cancer. How did this unusual collaboration come to be?
DD: Caroline was my first art teacher from
Dallas, Texas. I took figure drawing classes
from her. We became friends immediately.
One day, sitting at Caroline’s studio, this idea
of collaboration came to my mind. When
I told Caroline, she got excited too. Then
onwards we began our discussion on finding
a common question about cancer that we
both were interested in. The next step was
to design an approach that both artists and
scientists would understand. My background
in lung cancer heterogeneity, Caroline’s
background in visual art and design, and our
common interest in energy, metabolism, and
SciArt in America February 2015
chaos theory paved our way to a fascinating
collaborative project. Now, in addition to
Caroline and myself, we have another painter,
a sculptor and a photographer participating
in this project.
Sometimes, art is only used as a tool for
the scientists to make informational and
aesthetic figures. Similarly, sometimes science is only used as a context for the artists
to express their subconscious. I wanted to
take my game one level further. I wanted to
train myself to become a sci-artist who can
contribute to both science and art. First, I
needed to visit a professional artist’s workplace and learn the practical constraints and
applications. In Caroline’s studio, I had the
opportunity to learn, explore and collaborate
on various visual art techniques, such as oil
on yupo, the use of acrylic and spray paint
for generating fractal-like shapes, and the use
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