Kathy Strauss: Sky & Sea
Amalie Rothschild Gallery
On View: June 3 – 25
Opening reception: Friday, June 3 | 6 – 8pm
Gallery Talk: Measuring the Sky: Wednesday, June 22, 7pm

In her mixed media prints, scientist and artist Kathy Strauss highlights some of the gorgeous life forms from both the sky and the sea, weaving together the underlying physical and mathematical structures with their outside appearances. As most of us bump along through our daily lives, we get caught up in scheduling and details, forgetting to wonder at the truly grand, universal, and unifying things in our world. Political discussions and societal debates that seem so immediate and important change over time, and then fade from memory. But the underlying structures of our universe remain unchanged. Their discovery represents some of mankind’s noblest work, all while being largely ignored by most people. Strauss’ artwork alludes to the grandeur of this world - and universe – that remains to be explored.

On Wednesday, June 22, at 7:00 pm, Strauss will present an interactive gallery talk, Measuring the Sky. This free event addresses how we found our place in the universe, thanks in large part to astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt’s work. Up until about 100 years ago, humankind did not really know that much about the universe. This changed when Leavitt discovered a way to measure the distance between the earth and distant galaxies.

Strauss’ background as an artist and scientist imbues her with a continual urge to peer beneath the surface of things. As an artist, she works primarily with paper and fiber. In the lab, she is working with a team to eradicate malaria. She earned a degree in art from Westminster College, with a concentration in biology, as well a concentration in Mathematics from UMUC. Her work has been exhibited locally at the Creative Alliance, Maryland Art Place, and the Institute for Genome Sciences, as well as in in Pittsburgh, Washington DC, and New York. Strauss lives in Linthicum with her husband and son. Fine arts expert Jed Dodds wrote of Strauss’ work, “The urge to peer below the surface of things is at the root of all intellectual inquiry. We look under the hood, dig deep, peer within – these are all our attempts to understand the nature of things. Artists understand this as do scientists.”