On display at Matthaei Botanical Gardens July 1 – August 20, 2023

Reception with the artist on Sunday, August 20th 2-4pm.

Sara Adlerstein is an applied ecologist and visual artist. She joined the faculty of the University of Michigan – School for Environment and Sustainability in 2001. Her vision and mission is to bridge arts and sciences in teaching, research and service. Born in Chile, she obtained graduate degrees at the University of Washington. While she did not engage in art training, she has painted and exhibited her art for as long as she has been a scientist. Her paintings, shown in galleries and museums in Chile, Germany, France, Canada and the USA, are part of public and private art collections and published in books and magazines. Adlerstein is also an art curator. Her most recent curatorial work, the 2023 Bienal Concepción Arte-Ciencia-Comunidad, was a multi-university international effort at her hometown in Chile. In Ann Arbor, she exhibits her art at the WSG gallery.

ART STATEMENT

In my world, art and science belong together as naturally as air and water.   Both inform my work and guide my approach. The creative process drives my imagination, never the final product: observation, experimentation, improvisation and creating, all amalgamate. I have developed my own art techniques and my research influences the subject matter in a process that is enchanting, nurturing and informative. My environmentally based paintings communicate concerns, dreams, and emotions, all emerging from deep and relentless love for life. I explore physical and intangible worlds: magic into reality, reality into magic.  My landscapes transcend spatial reference and can be small as cells or large as a universe. Through my art, I share my life experiences, thoughts and feelings and hope for a moment of meaningful communication with the viewer. Nature-all is a collection of oil paintings reflecting my strong connection to Nature and my work as an ecologist. These images, inspired by the beauty of Earth and often the topic of my research, are visions of worlds that exist in a place of my heart.