- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
That's the theme of the June 6th public reception celebrating the work of Entomology 1 students and the accomplishments of Donna Billick, co-founder and co-director of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program. The event will take place from 6 to 10 p.m. June 6 in the Third Space, 946 Olive Drive, Davis.
It is free and open to the public.
Billick, a self-described "rock artist," co-founded the program with entomologist/artist Diane Ullman, professor and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology (now Entomology and Nematology), and former associate dean for Undergraduate Academic Programs, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
Ullman and Billick began teaching classes in the mid-1990s that led to the formation of the Art/Science Fusion Program. The program today includes design faculty, science faculty, museum educators, professional artists and UC Davis students. “Participants see and feel art and science, hold it in their hands, hearts and memories—in ceramics, painting, photographs, music, and textiles,” Ullman said.
The program, developed initially in the Department of Entomology and Nematology, is described as "an innovative teaching program that crosses college boundaries and uses experiental learning to enhance scientific literary for students from all disciplines." The program promotes environmental literacy with three undergraduate courses, a robust community outreach program, and sponsorship of the Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous (LASERs).
Another project that draws much attention and acclaim is the Ent 1 art in the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a half-acre bee garden on Bee Biology Road, west of the central campus.
Billick created “Miss Bee Haven,” a six-foot-long honey bee sculpture that anchors the garden. "I like to play with words,” said Billick.
She also is the artist behind the colorful Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility's ceramic sign that features DNA symbols and almond blossoms. A hole drilled in the sign leads to a bee hive.
Billick toyed with a scientific career before opting for a career that fuses art with science. She received her bachelor of science degree in genetics in 1973 and her master's degree in fine arts in 1977, studying art with such masters as Bob Arneson, Roy De Forest, Wayne Thiebaud and Manuel Neri.
Billick traces her interest in an art career to the mid-1970s when then Gov. Jerry Brown supported the arts and offered the necessary resources to encourage the growth of art. He reorganized the California Arts Council, boosting its funding by 1300 percent.
Also in Davis, Billick created the whimsical Dancing Pigs sculpture and the Cow Fountain, both in the Marketplace Shopping Center on Russell Boulevard; the Mediation sculpture at Central Park Gardens; and the Frawns for Life near the West Area Pond.
She maintains a compound in Baja, where she teaches three workshops a year called "Heaven on Earth." She has won numerous awards for her work.
For outstanding teaching, Diane Ullman was recently selected the recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Award in Teaching from the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America. She is now one of six candidates for the ESA Distinguished Teaching Award. ESA will select the recipient from one of six branches—Pacific, Eastern, North Central, Southeastern, Southwestern and International—and present the award at its Nov. 16-19 meeting in Portland, Ore.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The event, free and open to the public, will take place from 6:30 to 9 p.m. It will be moderated by Anna Davidson, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Plant Sciences who is studying plant physiology. She has organized and moderated all the LASER events on the UC Davis campus.
The April 7th schedule includes:
6:30-7: Socializing/networking
7-7:25: Christina Cogdell, UC Davis associate professor of design, specializing in history, theory and criticism, will speak on “Growing Living Buildings.”
7:25-7:50: Jesse Drew, UC Davis associate professor of cinema and technocultural studies, will discuss “Who Owns Creativity? Collective Wisdom and Media Innovation”
7:50-8:10 Break. (During the break audience members currently working within the intersections of art and science will have 30 seconds to share their work (a teaser/commercial)
8:10-8:35: Piero Scaruffi, a Bay Area-based cognitive artist, will cover “A Brief History of Creativity from Cheops Pyramid to Silicon Valley: 500 Years of Art Science Misunderstandings.”
8:35-9 p.m.: Wendy Kuhn Silk, UC Davis professor emeritus and art/scientist in the Department of Land, Air, and Water Science, will speak on “Singing about Science.”
The UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program is co-directed by the founders Diane Ullman and Donna Billick. Ullman is a longtime professor of entomology at UC Davis and associate dean for undergraduate academic programs in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Billick, a self-described rock artist, is also science-based: she has a bachelor's degree in genetics as well as a her master's degree in fine arts from UC Davis.
More on the Speakers
Christina Cogdell, associate professor of design, specializing in history, theory and criticism, and a Chancellor's Fellow at UC Davis, is the author of Eugenic Design: Streamlining America in the 1930s (2004), winner of the 2006 Edelstein Prize for outstanding book on the history of technology, and is co-editor of the anthology Popular Eugenics: National Efficiency and American Mass Culture in the 1930s (2006). Her work is included in the anthologies The Politics of Parametricism (forthcoming), Keywords in Disability Studies(forthcoming), Visual Culture and Evolution, I Have Seen the Future - Norman Bel Geddes Designs America, and Art, Sex, and Eugenics, and published in the journals American Art, Boom: A Journal of California, Design and Culture, Volume, Design Issues and American Quarterly.
Over the last few years, Cogdell has been researching her current book project on generative architecture and design in relation to recent scientific theories of self-organization and emergence, development and evolution, and complex adaptive systems. She has received research fellowships from the Mellon Foundation (New Directions Fellowship), the American Council of Learned Societies (Ryskamp Fellowship), the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal, and the Penn Humanities Forum at the University of Pennsylvania. At UC Davis, she teaches interdisciplinary classes in design history/theory/criticism, art history, cultural studies, and American studies. She previously taught at the University of Pennsylvania, College of Santa Fe, and California State University, Fullerton. Cogdell holds a doctorate in art history from the University of Texas at Austin (2001), a master's degree in American studies from the University of Notre Dame (1994), and a bachelor's degree in American studies from the University of Texas at Austin (1991).
Jesse Drew, associate professor of cinema and technocultural studies at UC Davis, teaches media archaeology, radio production, documentary studies, electronics for artists, and community media. He researches and practices alternative and community media and their impact on democratic societies, with a particular emphasis on the global working class. His audio-visual work, represented by Video Data Bank, has been exhibited at festivals and in galleries internationally, including ZKM (Germany), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (SF), Museum of Contemporary Arts (Chicago), Barcelona Cultural Center (Spain), World Wide Video Festival (Amsterdam), Dallas Film and Video Festival. Open Country is his current film project, a feature documentary on the politics of American Country music. His writings have appeared in numerous publications, journals and anthologies, including Resisting the Virtual Life (City Lights Press), Reclaiming San Francisco: History, Politics, Culture (City Lights Press), At a Distance (MIT Press), Collectivism After Modernism (University of Minnesota), West of Eden (PM Press). His new book is A Social History of Contemporary Democratic Media (Routledge). Before joining the UC Davis faculty, he headed the Center for Digital Media and was associate dean at the San Francisco Art Institute.
Piero Scaruffi is a Bay Area-based cognitive scientist who has lectured in three continents, has published several books on artificial intelligence and cognitive science, the latest one being "The Nature of Consciousness" (2006). He pioneered internet applications in the early 1980s and the use of the worldwide web for cultural purposes in the mid 1990s. His poetry has won several national prizes in Italy and the United States. Scaruffi's latest book of poems and meditations is "Synthesis" (2009). As a music historian, he has published 10 books, the most recent: "A History of Rock and Dance Music" (2009), "A History of Jazz Music" (2007) and "A History of Silicon Valley" (2011). The first volume of his free ebook "A Visual History of the Visual Arts" appeared in 2012. He is also the author of "Demystifying Machine Intelligence" (2013) and has written extensively about cinema and literature.
Wendy Kuhn Silk, UC Davis professor emeritus and art/scientist in the Department of Land, Air, and Water Science works on plant-environment interactions, writes songs, and performs with several local bands. In her early work she introduced concepts and numerical methods from fluid dynamics to the analysis of plant development, a field now known as the kinematics of plant growth. Silk's current projects include several collaborations on problems of soil health. To understand the root-soil interactions, she imagines sitting on the growing root tip and hopping off onto neighboring soil particles.
She teaches the course “Earth Water Science Song,” in which students hear lectures in environmental science and write, discuss and perform songs to communicate their understanding of natural history and scientific concepts.
LASER organizer and moderator Anna Davidson, makes bioart using fungus and other living materials as media. As a teacher for the UC Davis Art/cience Fusion Program, she leads the found object and sculpture studio section of the class, "Entomology 1, Art, Science, and the World of Insects." She specializes in curriculum development and teaching at the intersection of biology and the arts.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The exhibit features 50 student photographs exploring the conceptual
connections between art and science and the role of art and science on the UC Davis campus. The opening reception, which is free and open to the public, is Thursday, June 6 from 3 to 5 p.m.
The UC Davis Art Science and Fusion Program, co-founded and co-directed by entomologist/artist Diane Ullman and artist Donna Billick. Ullman is the associate dean of undergraduate academic programs in the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and UC Davis professor of entomology, and Billick is a self-described rock artist whose work has been shown throughout the world.
The UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program, launched in 1997, helps students reach across disciplines to learn science through art, and art through science, Ullman said. Each course focuses on key areas of biology, physics or environmental science and expressive art media, including ceramics, graphics, textiles, photography, poetry and music.
Of his course, “Photography, Bridging Art and Science,” Nathan says: “Beginning with centuries-old experiments in optics and chemistry to the present-day digital revolution, the camera has relied on science for itsdevelopment while also serving as a vital scientific tool for probing and documenting the natural world. In the hands of the artist, the camera has heightened our awareness of the aesthetic qualities of space and light while revealing hidden truths about culture and society."
“In this art/science fusion course (SAS 40), students use photography to explore the common ground occupied by art and science. Two lectures each week address topics such as the art and science roots of photography; principles of space, time and light; Gestalt psychology meets Einsteinian physics in photographic composition; the geometric foundations of art and science; order versus disorder; and photographic interpretation of the environment. One studio session each week builds visual literacy skills through hands-on photography projects. This final student exhibition highlights the learning and creativity that emerges when students explore the intellectual realm shared by art and science.”
Nathan is a professor in the Atmospheric Science Program of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, as well as a professor in the Art/Science Fusion Program and the Graduate Program in Applied Mathematics.
See more news from the Department of Entomology and Nematology.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
“I like to play with words,” said noted artist Donna Billick who created “Miss Bee Haven,” a six-foot-long honey bee sculpture for the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the University of California, Davis.
The sculpture, funded by Wells Fargo, graces the half-acre bee friendly garden, located on the Department of Entomology grounds of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road.
“The bee sculpture is beautiful and provides the perfect focal point for the garden,” said entomologist Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and professor and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology who oversees the garden. “On top of that it accurately represents a worker bee and provides an educational component as well as an aesthetic one.”
“The Wells-Fargo honey bee sculpture is a wonderful educational tool in the garden,” said Melissa “Missy” Borel, program manager of the California Center for Urban Horticulture who has helped develop the garden since its inception. “Visitors can get up close and personal with the bee, even touch the pollen baskets on her legs. We're fortunate to have such a beautiful model as a showcase to the public.”
Kimsey, who is master-planning the grand opening celebration of the garden, set from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 11, said the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven “is sure to become a campus destination.”
The bee, shaded by an almond tree, stands on a pedestal/bench decorated with ceramic art tiles, the work of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program. Billick, who worked on the bee from her Davis studio, Billick Rock Art, is the co-founder and co-director of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program. Billick founded the program in 2006 with entomologist-artist Diane Ullman, professor and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and now associate dean for Undergraduate Academic Programs, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
The Art/Science Fusion Program includes design faculty, science faculty, museum educators, professional artists and UC Davis students. “Participants see and feel art and science, hold it in their hands, hearts and memories—in ceramics, painting, photographs, music, and textiles,” Ullman said.
Millions of yellow porcelain tiles resembling hair cover the structure. “It's pretty hairy,” the artist quipped.
Miss Bee Haven, placed in the garden in June, is no lightweight. Anchored with 200 pounds of cement and with six bronze legs drilled into the pedestal, this worker bee is destined to stay put—unlike the six million bees that forage from the 110 hives at the nearby Laidlaw facility.
Billick's sculpture is morphologically correct, said Cooperative Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen, member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty. He praised the intricate detail of the head, thorax and abdomen.
“This is a surprisingly accurate rendition for a highly attractive work of art,” Mussen said. “I can gather a group around it and point out the special anatomical features that make the honey bee such an invaluable pollinator of our food crops. This bee and all the other magnificent ceramic works of art around our building, on-campus structures, and planned-for future structures demonstrate the enormous, highly visible value of the Art/Science Fusion Program.”
Billick used lost wax bronze casting to craft the six legs, which extend from the thorax to rest on a ceramic “purple dome” aster, fabricated by Davis artist Sarah Rizzo. The purple dome aster is among the flowers in the garden.
Billick created the double set of translucent wings with three sheets of fiberglass. The result: wings that are fragile-looking and true to life, but strong.
“During this entire process, I developed a real in-depth relationship with honey bees,” Billick said. For inspiration and detail, she visited the apiary in back of the Laidlaw facility, read about the functions of bees, and held the thoughts close. “It was not about expressing anything other than the beeness. I have a lot of respect for bees.”
“It was fun and satisfying to do,” the rock artist added.”I learned a ton.”
Billick is now creating a bee sculpture called “Swarmed,” which she calls a “wild-card idea” gleaned from the making of Miss Bee Haven. The piece, being finished for an art show in San Francisco, features 30 suspended bees.
A 35-year artist and an alumna of UC Davis, Billick toyed with a scientific career before opting for a career that fuses art with science. She received her bachelor of science degree in genetics in 1973 and her master's degree in fine arts in 1977, studying art with such masters as Bob Arneson, Roy De Forest, Wayne Thiebaud and Manuel Neri.
Billick traces her interest in an art career to the mid-1970s when then Gov. Jerry Brown supported the arts and offered the necessary resources to encourage the growth of art. He reorganized the California Arts Council, boosting its funding by 1300 percent.
The mid-1990s is when Billick and Ullman began teaching classes that fused art with science; those classes led to the formation of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program.
Billick's work is displayed in numerous public and private collections, including the Oakland Museum, Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, Carborundum Museum in New York, Richmond Art Center; Richard Nelson Gallery at UC Davis, William Sawyer Gallery in San Francisco and Mills College in Oakland.
Her work on the UC Davis campus includes the colorful Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility's ceramic sign that features DNA symbols and almond blossoms. A hole drilled in the sign leads to a bee hive.
Also in Davis, Billick created the whimsical Dancing Pigs sculpture and the Cow Fountain, both in the Marketplace Shopping Center on Russell Boulevard; the Mediation sculpture at Central Park Gardens; and the Frawns for Life near the West Area Pond.
She maintains a compound in Baja, where she teaches three workshops a year called "Heaven on Earth."
Miss Bee Haven also promises to provide heaven on earth--as a draw to admire the honey bee and as a sculpture to study the art form.
“Bees are very engaging,” Billick said. “I have a strong love for the work they do and how they go about doing it.”
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The ceramic art work being installed at the half-acre bee friendly garden on Bee Biology Road is the work of not only undergraduates in the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program but community residents.
A grand opening celebration of the haven is planned for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 11.
“We are so inspired by the learning that happens as students from majors across the campus and community members collaborate to create beautiful and educational artwork,” said Art/Science Fusion Program co-director and co-founder Diane Ullman, an entomologist and an artist. “It is exciting to see the learning we can share extended to so many people as a result of connecting art and science in this way.”
Diane Ullman, an entomology professor-artist and associate dean for undergraduate academic programs at the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, founded the Art/Science Fusion Program in 2006 with Davis-based artist Donna Billick. However, they trace the beginnings of the program back to 1997 when they began teaching art-science fusion classes on campus.
At the invitation of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program, sixth graders at Korematsu Elementary School, Davis, and community members crafted flowers, pollen grains and bees for the haven.
At one recent community workshop, third-grader Aleta Ballinger, 8, of Davis, finished a handful of ceramic bees and also completed a larger ceramic of a worker bee on hexagonal cells.
Artists Carol Rogala of Folsom, wearing a “Save the Bees” t-shirt, and her friend, T. J. Lev of Sacramento, crafted flowers from clay. They recently participated in the “Bees at The Bee” art show in Sacramento.
Members of two Davis families clustered around a table to work the clay into flowers and bees and paint them. Enthusiastically participating were children Jason Henkel, Sophia Leamy, Nicolas Leamy, and Matthew Henkel and adults Merissa Leamy, Nicolas Leamy and Barbara Friedman.
A special seminar offered by the Art/Science Fusion Program also allowed undergraduates in the Davis Honors Challenge to explore the life and importance of honey bees. Christine Santa Maria, a UC Davis honors student majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology, finished a piece on the life cycle of bees. She included larvae, nurse bees feeding the brood, and worker bees nectaring flowers. She formed a retinue of worker bees around the queen bee.
Billick created a gigantic bee sculpture for the garden. Donors making gifts or pledges of $1000 or more by July 20 will have their nams placed on ceramic art tiles in time for the Sept. 11 opening. Their names also will be placed on the website of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. Pledges can be paid over five years, according to Jan Kingsbury, director of major gifts, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
The deadline to contact her in order to have these tiles in place before the Sept. 11 opening is July 20. "We are just about to finish the art work for this set of tiles," Kingsbury said. More sets will follow. Kingsbury can be reached at (530) 304-4327 or jkingsbury@ucdavis.edu.
The grand opening celebration of the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven will include speakers, educational information about bees and how to help them survive, children's activities and tours.
(Editor's Note: Initially, plans called for RSVPing to the opening celebration. This is no longer necessary.)
