9.19.12
Today, before we embarked to the gallery, Professor Liu visited our class to explain a little bit of what we were going to view. He explained what his purpose in the gallery was, since he is a professor of astronomy, not art. He explained that Johann Jakob Scheuchzer was a person who enjoyed both science and art, which nowadays isn’t very common. Professor Liu started the discussion by asking us if we think it is possible to enjoy both the sciences and the arts. I know, however uncommon it might be, that it is possible and many people do enjoy both. I think it’s a common misconception that people can’t enjoy both because of what many of us have been told from a younger age.
I remember being in grammar school and being told that if you enjoy math, you mostly use the left side of your brain, and if you enjoy the arts, you mostly use the right side of your brain. This separation makes children feel that you can only be good at, or find pleasure in, one or the other but not both. Even as people grow up and go into their specific fields of study, many adults might not enjoy, and might even fear, a subject that they aren’t trained in or comfortable with. Professor Liu also made another good point by saying that everything we do has both an artistic and scientific component; both are part of our lives. He further explained this by using a metaphor, a piano. The notes and sounds we hear are the art aspect of a piano. The meter and the mechanics of the piano are the scientific aspect.
I think many great things can happen when people embrace both the sciences and the arts. We can see this in Scheuchzer’s artwork. Scheuchzer paints Biblical scenes and incorporates science as well. In his boarders, which often become the painting itself, he often shows the scientific part of various Bible verses. In his painting of the mustard seed, the mustard plant’s roots are in the boarders but, the leaves because part of the main picture. Scheuchzer is also not afraid to paint some anatomical things like animal bones. I often saw that a lot of his paintings have animals in them, whether a main part of the picture or in the boarder. Some of his paintings have a globe on them, which incorporates geography, another science. Scheuchzer is a prime example that one can enjoy science and art.

– Amber G