"Oh my love, what happened to your light?"
PRATYASHA
In that sense, the mice helped me find my light and now I am a kid again, looking to take my love for science and art into a journey that'll be all my own."
"
PRATYASHA
About the Self-Portrait
The text in this piece is a lyric from the song Kid Again by Jon Bellion. I have been listening to it on a loop. It has Jon's (AI-generated) younger voice asking him "Oh, my love, what happened to your light?" which is a reference to how his experiences in the music industry and an exploitative contract affected his passion for creating music. He recently got free from that clause and is now operating independently. The song is not pessimistic at all! His older, present-day voice replies "I am a kid again, I can do anything," signifying that his passion for creating music never died and that now he is back with a bang from his tough situation. This resonated with me because I really, really love science but may not have always had the best experiences.
For the longest time I have spent my days at the lab doing chores no one else wants to do simply because I am a junior and also because with coursework I could give only a part of my time to the lab, so I was not trusted with experiments. I was able to overcome that stage but at a great cost to my interest for a long-term commitment to benchwork. I even thought that maybe I didn't even like science so much. But after interacting with the mice (and experiments) I realized that I actually do love science, maybe just not in the context of a usual PhD-Postdoc experience. In that sense, the mice helped me find my light and now I am a kid again, looking to take my love for science and art into a journey that'll be all my own.
How I came up with the Lab Self-Portrait
I draw self-portraits very frequently but I have never thought of one in the context of the work I do in the lab. The photos I take sneakily in between breaks came in handy. Purple nitrile gloves feature prominently because on the very first day at the lab they caused me to sneeze wildly until I just had to get used to it having no other choice. I also went over my lab notes and saw how I could integrate them into this self-portrait.
About Pratyasha
Pratyasha is a visual artist and a final year student of Biotechnology at IIT Kharagpur. She combines her love for the life sciences and storytelling to create fanciful comics and paintings exploring the relationship of humans with nature.
Related Posts
May your grades not defer your dreams!
ANANDHU
"What truly matters in any journey, whether it is one in science or not. It is the ignition within you… the curiosity and the passion…. As you learn, you’ll understand how far you have traveled, which is way less than the distance ahead to be covered. Patience and humility are key to reaching the destination."
Share this page: