Artist Bio:
Audrey Carver is a muralist and scientific communicator from Idyllwild, CA. From Ecuador to Boston to Costa Rica, and back here to Southern California, she has worked to study climate science and make art to help people engage with it. Her work can be found at audreycarver.wixsite.com/acart, or on Instagram @carveraudrey.
Artist Statement:
From left to right, this mural shows the context and development of CAICE (NSF Center for Aerosol Impacts on the Chemistry of the Environment). On the far-left side, climate data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association shows anomalous global temperatures for the last 150 years, setting the context for the importance of the research that CAICE is conducting: cloud formation, climate patterns and models, and aerosols and air quality. The crashing wave in the middle of the mural then shows close-up depictions of CAICE discoveries: an image of the surface of the ocean during an algae bloom, some of the many particles released as sea spray aerosols (SSAs), bacteria and viruses that participate in the reactions of SSAs, the molecular complexity of aerosols, and diatoms/phytoplankton living at the ocean interface, particles that become aerosolized. Finally, on the right, the wave enters a flume, bringing the ocean into the lab and allowing CAICE to study the seeding of clouds, improve climate models, and better understand our complex environment.
As a part of the 2021 Summer Science Communication Fellowship with CAICE, Audrey Carver, an undergraduate at Tufts University painted the mural featured above to represent the inspiration, innovation and legacy of CAICE research. The mural recently found its home outside the Hydraulics Lab at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the building that actually houses the wave flume featured in the painting.
The journey to create this work was an inspiring collaboration between artist and scientist. Audrey spent time speaking with several scientists at CAICE. Each scientist invested time into these interviews, explaining the results of their research, why their research is valuable and what drives them to continue. From these conversations Audrey wrote blog articles and as her understanding of the science grew, she planned and painted the mural you see above.
We are so thankful to Audrey, the scientists, and everyone who helped make this mural possible. Including Scripps Institution of Oceanography for housing the mural, the National Science Foundation for supporting the work of CAICE and CAICE for supporting and valuing science communication and art.
All who pass by the Hydraulics Lab at UC San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography can enjoy this beautiful mural representation of the impact and legacy of CAICE research. An artistic representation of aerosols, how we study them, and how the chemistry of those aerosols influences our climate.