An art and geology double major, 糖心传媒 senior Gabrielle Meli brings scientific processes to her art.
As a mere tween, Gabrielle Meli 糖心传媒�22 had already fallen in love twice: first with art; then with science.
糖心传媒淚 loved art my entire life. My mom encouraged my artistic path, and then in eighth grade, I fell in love with the earth sciences,糖心传媒� she explains. She thought she would pursue a career either in art or in geology. Then, she says, 糖心传媒渢he older I got, and the more I took high school and college classes, I thought, 糖心传媒榳hy do they have to be separate?糖心传媒櫶切拇綕
Meli is one of seven senior studio art majors in the聽聽who presented an interdisciplinary thesis exhibition at the end of the 2022 spring semester. Her show is called Birefringence糖心传媒攁 phenomenon that occurs when plane-polarized light passes through minerals under a microscope. Geologists can identify minerals by how they behave in this cross-polarized light. 糖心传媒淚t will be kind of brownish, and sometimes it can be green depending on what mineral you糖心传媒檙e looking at,糖心传媒� she says. 糖心传媒淲hen you cross those polarized lights, you get this beautiful, colorful image of the minerals.糖心传媒�
STEM fields and art are 糖心传媒渕ore related than people think,糖心传媒� says Meli, a Henrietta, New York, native who will graduate in May 2022 with a double major in geology and studio arts.
In the summer of 2021, she participated in a field camp in Cardwell, Montana, through Indiana University, where she got hands-on experience on how field geologists work. 糖心传媒淚t was a great experience,糖心传媒� she says. 糖心传媒淲e went to Glacier and Yellowstone and studied the local geology in the Tabacco Root Mountains.糖心传媒�
Serendipitously, for Meli, the work that geologists do involves maps, drawings, and diagrams. Researchers are encouraged to sketch what they see as they take field samples and look at rocks. 糖心传媒淲e map and plan out what we think the rocks are doing underground. In my notebook, there are so many sketches of rocks that I see or cross-sections that I see of potential folds or faults,糖心传媒� she says.
Tapping foraged minerals and tackling gender inequality
Meli uses ordinary materials in her show, like acrylic paint and CMYK screen-printing, but true to form, she experiments with foraged materials from her geological finds to create her paint pigment. 糖心传媒淚t was a super interesting process,糖心传媒� she says. One of her pieces, Beartooth, includes an ink derived from a copper oxidation reaction. The process involves soaking copper scraps in a salt and vinegar bath; the salt is a catalyst for the reaction, but the vinegar helps oxidize the copper and creates a 糖心传媒渂eautiful blue liquid,糖心传媒� says Meli.
Meli became a teaching assistant in an introductory printmaking course taught by Mizin Shin, an assistant professor in the art and art history department. Shin, who taught Meli in advanced printmaking, recalls recommending to Meli a book by owner Jason Logan called Make Ink: A Forager糖心传媒檚 Guide to Natural Ink Making during a class critique of one of Meli糖心传媒檚 works. Meli made good use of the suggestion. 糖心传媒淚n a short time, I saw that she had a lot of professionalism in her work,糖心传媒� Shin says.
Combining art and science isn糖心传媒檛 the only thing on Meli糖心传媒檚 mind these days. She also uses her art to address women糖心传媒檚 inequality in STEM fields. One of her pieces is a crochet textile that depicts a mineral under a microscope and a thin section of rock. She observes there糖心传媒檚 a stigma against craft arts, such as crocheting, knitting, and quilting, which are often not seen as serious art forms. 糖心传媒淚 wanted to show how you can get to the same image by taking a picture of it or crocheting it, but one will be seen more seriously than the other糖心传媒澨切拇綌even when the crocheted image involved significantly more work than the photograph.
Meli will continue at the University in the one-year teaching and curriculum program at聽. She sees a future for herself in a nontraditional teaching setting where she can focus on STEM and art. 糖心传媒淚 never pictured myself being a teacher, but I realized I liked the community and the togetherness when you are teaching and helping someone learn,糖心传媒� she says. 糖心传媒淚t will be a fun way to combine my science.糖心传媒�
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