The Plants We Played With – Yanny Peters

Yanny Peters, The Plants We Played With

Typically, with this blog, I write about my favorite artists, or works of art that I have an emotional connection to. However, with this blog, I would like to take my final Passion Blog opportunity to write about the future while keeping the past in mind.

Spring is my favorite season. The stormy cloudy rain brings about the bright colors of new life, making it the most poetic and reflective time of year. Beautiful pink flowers bud on trees on Penn State’s campus, and even the weeds have an odd beauty to them.

I remember growing up, when my mother would garden, she would have me pull the weeds. She would instruct me to pull the entire root out so that the weed wouldn’t grow back the next year. However, I always had trouble distinguishing weeds from flowers and I could never seem to completely uproot the plant… I wasn’t great at gardening.

Recently, I’ve made the decision to pull my weed.

Though my roots have growth deep into the ground of my safety, I want to spread my dandelion seeds to a new, unknown place.

This summer I have made the choice to study abroad in Dublin, Ireland. This was a tough decision to make and although it was difficult to make the decision to leave my comfort zone alone, I’ve decided that it is important to uproot to discover, learn, and most importantly, grow.

Yanny Petters, The Plants We Played With, National Gallery of Ireland (2015).

The Plants We Played With is a recent artistic love of mine. I really like the sketchy style of this work and the displaced color throughout the piece, displaying childlike memories of playing with weeds. The painting seems to be pulled from a botany textbook, containing extreme attention to detail in terms of color and shape.

The piece that I have chosen to feature today is a work from the National Gallery of Ireland, which is a location that I will be visiting while taking 8 credits of Organic Chemistry abroad.

Yanny Petters is an Irish artist who creates works that are closely tied to nature by exploring detail, color, and form within the realm on an environment. Petters is fascinated by the beautiful and bizarre complexities and the resilience of weeds and nature.

Though I would like to deny it, I am growing up and taking on independence. This will be the first time that I am going on a plane by myself. This will be the first time that I have to remember the American dollar to Euro exchange rate. This piece maintains the lesion that growing up is imminent and though decisions will take me places, I will leave my roots wherever I get uprooted. Somehow, that makes the decision to leave a little less scary.

Of course, I have not completely uprooted myself from my home. I intend to grow back again from my roots where I was born, but not before leaving a part of myself in Ireland.

Claude Monet Impression Sunrise 1872

Passion: The Meaning of Art in Evolution.

Claude Monet Impression Sunrise 1872

Art is powerful. I think the reason why I have such a desire to love and be around art is because there is nothing I appreciate more the a snapshot of culture in a moment in time.

Claude Monet is one of the most influential artists in history. Although he is anything but underground, it is important to note that he has been widely recognized as the “Father of Impressionism” throughout history.

Small and unassuming, one may look at this work and believe that it is a first draft of an oil painting. This piece is simple. It has loose, thick strokes and bright colors. The sun stands out against the blue hue, forcing the viewer to note the  time of the day.

Some may argue that it is a little too simple to consider “fine art,” however I think that the intention behind this piece is what makes it so influential.

I admire his work because of the lack of technical detail. It takes great artistic skill to resist making a work for other people, and Claude Monet made this work for himself, not for the people of high society.

At the salons, this work was not approved to be displayed. Many wrote this work off as ridiculous and undeserving of appreciation. Monet made this piece to critique the construction of artistic norms and the creation of values in art. The point was to create divide surrounding those who viewed art for the purpose of processing and communicating emotion and those who viewed art as a skill.

Those who called this artwork a disgrace was wrong in my opinion. Whether you like modern art or not, this piece evolved the art world, and pushed the boundaries of the definition of art and it demands respect despite the lack of developed technique.

He made this work to display the emotion of what it was like to watch the sunrise on the bay. Many people credit this artwork as the birth of the impressionist movement because it was so.

Everyone can learn from this piece.

I use this piece as means of evolution. Moving on from people that have no more meaning to my life, entering myself into a new environment, and developing my individual character and belief.

I have been lucky enough to see this work of art in person, and it inspires me. If nothing else, it reminds me to constantly challenge myself to redefine and reframe the things that I value. It pushes me to evolve my way of thinking and my open mindedness towards change.

Art is older than us, and the beauty of it is that it will never stop evolving; deconstructing, adapting, rebuilding. Just as in the piece, the skyline is hazy. There is no telling where evolution will bring us next, but like the boat on the harbor, we have to be willing to change and seek the next thing on the horizon.

Passion Blog: Mary Cassatt

The Child’s Bath, 1890. Mary Cassatt. Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

The piece below is an oil painting. In this work, a woman in a striped dress is bathing her child. The viewer will notice much detail in the front of the image and in the back, notice the very loose shapes in the furniture. This allows the viewer to focus on the mother’s relationship with her daughter, which is the only focus that the mother has.

I really love this painting. My mother will always say that this is her favorite work of art. My mother is not a big fan of art. She doesn’t really know much about it and she can only provide a listening ear when my father goes on tangents about his art opinions. However, here at Penn State, my mother took one (and only one) art history course.

My mother’s favorite painter is Mary Cassatt. She is a Pittsburgh artist who came from money. She attended art school in Paris, and over the course of my life, she’s become one of my favorite artists because Cassatt is my mother’s favorite.

Something that I love about Cassatt’s work is that she perfectly captures motherhood. Cassatt was one of the first influential women in the art world. She was an especially important figure during the impressionist movement.

The mother’s relationship with her daughter is tender, just as it is in every other piece that Cassatt has made. I really enjoy her work and the common expressions of the mother and child. Each piece is a window into the real life of a mother, not a portrait that a family prepared at length for. While viewing, you can feel the mother’s love for her young.

We have a few prints by Mary Cassatt hanging around our house. Child in Bath is my favorite. It’s placement is perfect: right outside of my room. With a multiple blogs about my father and a blog about my own work, I really wanted my mother to shine through. She is someone I am passionate about talking about as well and though my connection with her is not dependent on art, I think that my love for her shines through in this piece.

Being a female engineer and a project director for Westinghouse, my mother is no nonsense because she had to be. My mother’s love for me is casual and essential. She is not extremely nurturing and caring, but she is reliable. I do not expect sympathy from my mother. I expect my mother to come into the room with a white board and a marker to make a pros and cons list. Cassatt’s work captures the duty of a mother to her children and I think that is why my mother connects with her work so well.

  • For my advocacy project, I want to create a short 3-4 minute short video that informs the public about health communication and the importance of honesty in care.

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cast/hd_cast.htm

Passion Blog: Detective Balcom

Detective Balcom, Effie Frank 2023.

Over time, art has evolved into a pillar of my personality. I thought that for one of my final passion blogs, I would write about some of the artwork I have created my fourth year of high school.

For my advanced art class senior year, each student has the task of choosing a topic that will be their concentration for the whole year.

Some of my favorite artworks that I made stemmed from the topic I chose my senior year: Murder Mystery. While many students choose topics of climate change or beauty, I wanted to pick a concentration that would challenge me and force me to put more effort into.

For the project, I wrote a mystery about the murder of a rich book publisher, Mr. Abbott and I tasked myself with the goal of visually telling the story of the murder from the perspective of the Detective, Dr. Balcom.

At the end of the schoolyear, I had the honor of getting my work displayed in one of three showcases and at the Scholastics Art Show. My murder mystery portfolio won a bronze key. All artwork pictured below is my own. Only the works pictured in my display case were created for my murder mystery art concentration.

I made four large-scale projects throughout the year. For the first project, I made portraits of each of the murder suspects in oil pastel with their character profiles attached to the back.

For the second project, I made a diorama of the scene of the crime. I hand-made each piece of furniture and used textile samples to create rugs, and upholster my little couch with leather. I cut out windows and made globes and candles with air-dry clay.

For my third project, I made an oil painting of the detective put on the case.

In my fourth project, I visually revealed the solution to the murder with a story board, with each suspect being represented by their signature color from their portrait. I wanted this project to feel underdeveloped and slightly imperfect in order to reflect the nature of real storyboards, because I wanted the viewer to interpret the work as preparation for the shots of a future movie.

I loved how the works of my concentration flowed with each other. However, my favorite work was by third project (see below).

This was a particularly challenging process because oil painting not only takes an extremely long time, but it also takes a strong understanding of the chemicals involved with the medium. Oil painters cannot use water when diluting their paints, so they must use chemicals like turpentine to clean brushes and change colors.

I think that throughout the development of this series, I grew as an artist because the plot of the story I made forced me to think about the details: body language, facial expression, and clothing appearance all became clues to the story. After these works, I began to see every detail of my pieces as nods to a larger story that was being told through the work, and that added more passion and expression to my paintings.

Civic Issue Blog 3: Stem Cell Podcast Report

Civic Issue Blog 3: Stem Cell Podcast – Ologies

Introduction

One of my favorite podcasts is called “ologies” it is hosted by Alie Ward, and with each episode, Ward goes through a different type of science category each episode. Ologies is the number one science podcast on Spotify right now. This podcast covers a broader range than simply the treatment of disease.

On this episode, Ali Ward invited Dr. Samantha Yammine from the University of Toronto to get a professional’s perspective on stem cells. Dr. Yammine goes by “Science Sam” on her social media accounts. She has a goal of making science accessible and digestible to the general public. Dr. Yammine posts on social media outlets about science and medicine.

Dr. Yammine earned her Honors Bachelor of Science degree by completing the Neuroscience Specialist and Cell & Molecular Biology Major within the Life Sceinces Program. She completed her PhD in 2019.

Apparently, stem cells are called “stem” because they are the cells from which other cells stem! They can make other cells and they can make copies of themselves, which are unique. There are many different stem cell types. You have separate stem cell types for each part of the body.

Dr. Yammine is excited to discuss the ethical questions about stem cells and the speed at which science is progressing with cloning, gene-edited babies, and healing properties of scientific discoveries. She relates stem cell scientists to scientists who wished they were philosophers, comparing stem cells to the ship of Theseus. It is highly debated where the stem cell’s nature ends and whether cells that are specialized can be considered original stem cells, since stem cells are constantly dividing. It is difficult to tag stem cells and find them in the body, however Dr. Yammine reports that stem cells contain a marker that indicate their status, in the form of a fatty lipid coat surrounding the cell membrane.

The regenerative properties of stem cells are a relatively new progression in the world of science in 2006. It is a common misconception that new neurons can’t be formed in the brain. Many people are unaware that there are stem cells in the brain, though scare, that allow new neurons to form.

A mature skin cell with four reprogramming factors can reverse in “developmental time” to become a reduced pluripotent cell which can then be specialized into a different cell type.

Interestingly enough

Gathering Stem Cells

Much embryonic stem cell lines actually happen to be made from terminated pregnancies years ago, so constant donations are not constantly needed. This makes the situation more ethical and practical and it is unfortunate that not more people, like myself, were aware of this development until now. Adults can even donate stem cells from skin biopsies or their bone marrow for research. Stem cells can make more of themselves and are not as limited as many people believe them to be!

Stem cell creation and purification is extremely expensive. Some stem cell therapies are covered by insurance (specifically cases of blood conditions), but the majority of them are not covered and extremely expensive.

Interestingly enough, exercise and physical activity can promote the survival of transplanted stem cells and further promote and regulate their regenerative properties.

Aging

Aging is even a philosophical scientific question when defining it biologically. Research demonstrates that stem cells can reduce certain parts of aging, because they can repair damaged and apoptotic cells and stimulate their cell regeneration. However these are expensive and not often used.

Dr. Yammine claims that with the existence of plant stem cells, research regarding regenerative skincare could exist from the research of the cells, however there is no need to go to the lengths to buy products that have stem cells in them.

Stem Cell Based Organ Transplants

Dr. Yammine notes that organ transplants are very far into the future for medical science. She states that there are tissues currently being made in labs that are extremely successful, however organs are wildly complicated.

3D Printing has actually helped to build scaffolds for organs, however in order to created a stem cell organ, many different types of tissues are found within organs and they must be aligned in a functional way in order to be effective.

There is current research being done to use human stem cells in other organisms. Xenotransplantation is a medical procedure in which other animals create organs that are then transferred to humans. There have been successful cases of this procedure. Pigs were able to create a kidney that was adapted to be functional inside of a human. These results are very promising to the future of organ transplants.

Since 12 people die each day waiting on organ donations, the possibilities of this process are exciting to the medical world, yet disappointing to animal activists.

Ethics

The stem cell community discusses the topic of ethics in great detail. Dr. Yammine wishes that there was more discussion surrounding the ethical debates of stem cells, partially to better inform the public but also to demonstrate the benefit of much of the current research.

Dr. Yammine stated that policy moves “too slow for science.” Contrary to my belief, she is convinced that policy must move faster to keep up with research, but I think that it is important to stop and truly analyze the overarching effects of some of these research topics.

There is no international policy on stem cell research, so it is up to each country to decide their stance on scientific development.

Reflection

Overall, in my opinion I am excited about stem cell research. While I am extremely hesitant about the common practice of cloning and genetic engineering of babies, I think that the future of organ transplant alone is enough evidence to continue stem cell research on that front.

I worry about unintended consequences about research moving too fast, but the other reflection I find myself pulling from listening to this podcast is that the world needs specialists like Dr. Yammine to communicate the effects, and ethics of cutting edge research. It is a common phrase that people are afraid of what they do not understand, so it is crucial that the general public seek out science communicators like Dr. Yammine to learn more about an issue before they default to the popular opinion of their political party.

  • https://www.alieward.com/ologies/stemcellbiology
  • https://www.samanthayammine.com/phd-research

Deliberation Reflection

Accessible Access to Education at Penn State

I think that overall, my deliberation went well (I saw you were in attendance, thank you for being there!). I think that one of the things that I did well was keeping the conversation going despite a small group being present. I think that my whole group did a really good job of keeping an open mind throughout the discussion and I also feel as though my group was extremely well educated on the topic and their personal approach, which really helped the group in approaching people’s logistical questions and helped us frame the introduction in a way that made sense to people.
However, there are some things that I think I would have changed if I had the chance to do the deliberation over again. I think that I definitely would have double-checked that all of the videos were accessible before the presentation. I trusted a member of my group to do it and even asked them to make sure that the video was seeable days before, I should have personally checked that the video they uploaded was viewable. Since there was a whole debacle with presenting the video and needing to have one of our group members orally present the slides, I was embarrassed that it looked like our group wasn’t prepared after I had put so much effort into my parts of the project. I was disappointed with that also because as they were trying to fix the video, I was forced to carry the conversation by myself and the rest of the group as a whole didn’t ask as many questions as I wished they had because I asked the majority of the questions.
This leads me to my second shortcoming: I have trouble letting go of the reigns in group projects because I am a perfectionist. After the group exercise the class did with recognizing the type of group member you are, I’ve been more aware of my behavior in groups and I think I typically get stressed trying to gain too much control. I did a good job stepping back during the research and preparation of this project, though I felt myself begin to “steamroll” during the presentation, and though I could use the lost video as an excuse, I felt so uncomfortable by the silence of the room that I continued to talk when I maybe should’ve given others a few more seconds to see if they wanted to add anything else.

Liberty Leading the People, 1830, Eugene Delacroix

Liberty Leading the People, 1830, Eugene Delacroix

It was the summer before my ninth grade year when my father, sister, and I visited the Louvre. My dad is an art teacher, so when we went on a trip to Europe to visit my mom who was working in a small English town, he insisted on stopping at as many museums as our legs and connecting trains could carry us to. We visited 5 museums during our time in Europe, sometimes visiting more than one museum in a day due to the time crunch that we faced. Contrary to popular belief, soaking up all the culture France and England have to offer is no easy feat in 3 weeks… but boy did we try our hardest.

It was also the year that I had torn my ACL, MCL, and meniscus. I was unknowingly walking across Europe with three torn and pulled ligaments, but I would never dare to complain because those 3 weeks were the greatest of my life. It was a formative experience for me because during that time not being able to play soccer made me feel weak, as though a piece of my personality had been stripped from me. Europe made me see that there is so much more life has to offer. Even though sometimes I was too tired to walk, I think I knew that I would never get a chance to experience art to that extent again in my life. Though, sadly, I’ll never get a chance like that again, knowing that it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity made me value my experiences in those museums.

In a red painted room with high vaulted ceilings, there was one painting in particular that resonated me and made me stand still and reflect. I think that this piece perfectly captures my experience in Europe, though my steaks were obviously less high than those in the painting.

The piece is called Liberty Leading the People and it was painted by Eugene Delacroix in 1830 during the height of the French Revolution. This work was a piece of Pro-Revolution propaganda, and I must say if I were a French proletariat, I would definitely have been moved by the message of this piece and influenced into joining the revolution.

Liberty Leading the People Depicts the personification of Liberty holding up the French flag and encouraging the members of the revolt to march on. The Flag and liberty are both a light region of the painting that serves as a contrast to the dark borders, pulling your eyes in. The proletariat French are not dressed as an organized unit, and they are fighting upon the fallen, but the work communicates the beautiful sense of duty and urgency that was felt by the French at the time. feel a connection to this piece because the central subject shares my sentiment in her expression and body language.

Seeing this painting in person made me take the role of “underdog” with honor. Liberty and I were both optimistic for the future and willing to push ourselves to overcome our obstacles and I think that anybody can pull away a similar message from this piece.

This painting makes me think of triumph for the weak and the glory of giving something your all.

 

In Defense of Stem Cell Research

In Defense of STEM Cell Research

Introduction
Being an issue similar to abortion, there is a controversial, hot topic debate over the ethicality of stem cell research and the place of such research in society. Bioethics is an extremely interesting topic for me, and I think that this topic is highly important to deliberate on in the modern day. No matter the ethical side of this issue is naturally taking the public, to address the controversy, it is important to first be aware of both sides of the moral argument.
The first entry was an extremely broad overview of the topic and the arguments of both sides. However, the next two entries will cover the reasoning on either side of the issue, current events that are relevant to the topic of stem cell research as well as possible solutions to attempt to fix the divide over the issue, which will be no easy task.
In the next civic issue blog, I will cover the strong ethical rejections of research methods such as these and once again brainstorm how to regulate the impact that stem cell research has on society while facilitating both sides of the argument. That blog will be less centered around scientific methods and it will highlight current bioethics figures on their stances. Not only the ethics of harming fetuses but also the ethics of pushing medicines to ethical limits with these inventions will be reviewed in that blog. These developments may be occurring so fast that it is difficult for society to keep up, and that may lead to potentially detrimental effects for society.
How are Stem Cells Collected?
With uses that range as far as the broad topic of “regenerative medicine,” many current research projects are underway in the modern world. Since this entry acts as a defense for stem cell research, it would be beneficial to go through an overview of some of the incredible discoveries occurring that can be accredited to the use of stem cells.
It was discovered in 2006 that stem cells can be reprogrammed into the pluripotent state, which means that the stem cell is immature and undeveloped and therefore has the potential to become specialized into a different cell type through the activation of certain genes.
Stem cells not only play a role in the assistance of restorative medicine, but their study also has the potential to reveal more about early human development. Stem cells can be used in new drug tests, as alternatives for arthroplasty, and therapy for neurodegenerative diseases.

 


The method by which stem cells are obtained by scientists is quite simple. Of course, for a zygote to be made, a sperm and an egg must join. The zygote is left to develop for about 6 days and then it is referred to as a blastocyst or a cluster of dividing cells. This embryo is in the early stages of development and its lining is made up of short-lived stem cells called embryonic stem cells. These inner cells are removed from the blastocyst and then grown in a petri dish independently. A change in the conditions of the cell culture can stimulate the cell to specialize in a particular way, making unique cells like neurons, muscle cells, skin cells, and many more. The hollow blastocyst will not survive the extraction of the stem cells in the majority of cases.
Addressing Ethical Concerns: How are Stem Cell Obtained?
Many people maintain this misconception about how stem cells are obtained. Largely due to conspiracy theorists and jokes made about the practice like in the episode about stem cells on South Park. Many people with reservations about the use of stem cells for research do not support the method because they are morally against the idea of killing babies, however, in cases of modern medicine in the United States, this is not necessarily the method scientists use to gather stem cells for research.


In most cases, the embryos used for the procedure were donated from In vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics, which are the places women who have fertility issues go in order to be artificially inseminated with sperm in a laboratory. These donated embryos were destined to be destroyed before they were donated either due to rejections of implantation or a couple no longer wishing to store the embryos for the future.
Sometimes, scientists will take a single stem cell from an embryo without destroying it and then use that cell to develop more in a method called preimplantation genetic testing.
Stem cells can also be found in adults, inside their bone marrow. These adult stem cells are difficult to grow and there are very few of them found in the human body.


How is this a Social and Civic Issue?
The overarching civic issue surrounding the use of stem cell research is not only regarding the sanctity of life but also regarding the impact that its use would have on not only the medical world, but also governmental budgeting, further class divide, and elder care. With the prospect of a new method of care so close on the horizon it is crucial to consider possible unintended consequences of research.
An example of an important factor to consider is the changes that elder care would experience as a result of stem cell research. If stem cells are to be researched with the support of the government, will the population of elders in the United States increase exponentially, further reinforcing the drastic increase in the percentage of elderly people making up the world population seen in the last 100 years? It can be assumed that there will be more funds required to maintain the lives of elderly people as well as their other medical needs. Will there be excessive strain on nursing homes faster than they can adapt? Will patients with neurodegenerative disorders still have fulfilling lives if their disorders are slowed by stem cell research?
These questions arise simply from the considerations of elder care, so the consequences on the global scale may be massive and they can not go overlooked.
It is important to see this problem not only as an ethical dilemma but also as a civic issue. There needs to be a discussion about healthcare disparities, affordability, and regulation of study if society is to become reliant on stem cells for care and treatment.

References
https://stemcellres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13287-019-1165-5

Myths and Misconceptions About Stem Cell Research

 

 

Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night, 1889 

Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night, 1889, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Art is powerful, and I think one of the most beautiful things about art is its power to develop even though its a stagnant object. Once finished and placed in a museum, the composition of a work of art will never change, but I find it beautiful that the interpretation and (more importantly) meaning of a work of art can evolve long after an artist is dead.

For any person arguing that art should not be valued to the extent by which the core sciences are in modern society, I would argue that their mentality is direct evidence of the loss of understanding behind art. Art is powerful because it is constant yet evolutionary. Art is meant to be argued over, and I think that’s why modern society sees such derivation and misunderstanding in the art world today.

Modern artists make statements that devolve into nonsense and as a result, the viewer is uninterested because they no longer understand or relate to the art. To me, that’s scary. I don’t like where art is going because it no longer changes minds or influences people like it did before. The passion surrounding the art world is lacking both in creation and viewership. Modern art seems… lazy to me.

I spend a lot of time trying to seem like a cultured, maybe even tortured art lover. I would silently judge people who liked “basic” works of art like the Mona Lisa, Monet’s Waterlilies, and Starry Night by Van Gogh. But after I watched one of my five favorite films for the first time, Midnight in Paris, I changed my mind.

Midnight in Paris, a film with a poster that mirrors Starry Night, changed my perspective on Starry Night because it “painted” (wink) the piece in a new light. What once was an overprinted work of art then become a symbol for the changing of art along with the values of life.

The lesson that Owen Wilson, one of my favorite actors, learns in the film after Owen Wilson time travels back to the height of the 1920s is that we all wish we were born in a different time. We want to experience things that have already happened in the height of creation so much that we don’t see the wonderful developments of current life, and I’ve brought that new lens to Starry Night.

To me, Starry Night is a divine moment in time captured by van Gogh, serving the message that each detail of current life has beauty. The viewer doesn’t care what detail occurs outside of the framing of the painting, because the frame of the town is enough – a little world that is enough the way it is.

Though I constantly complain about the pathway modern art has taken, it is important to keep in mind that changes in art directly reflect changes in society. Modern art is important and crucial, and there are plenty of valuable components that the viewer should make a greater effort to understand.