Today’s work of art is another modern one, painted just two years ago, by Ann Erpino, a California artist. The title of the painting is The Brewery, curious because it depicts not a brewery but a mug of beer with scientific symbols and formulas on and all around it.
The Brewery is part of a larger series of paintings, known as “The Science Series,” consisting of “sixty small paintings about DNA programming, mechanical thinking, life’s mineral origins, nanotechnology, and other research projects of the Erik Winfree Laboratory at Caltech are on exhibit during biannual Brewery Artwalks.”
It seems natural to me that brewing would be included, since so much of brewing is a mix of art science. But the caption seems to ignore that aspect, saying simply. “Some great and inspired ideas have been brewed over a cold mug of beer.” And while that is undoubtedly true, brewing itself is a science yet none of the symbols and formulas in the painting appear to be brewing related, just random. So while I like the idea of the painting, it feels a bit like a missed opportunity to really bridge the worlds of art and science more literally as well as symbolically, in the very way that craft brewers are doing right now. The fact that she’s lived in California for a long time makes that doubly troubling, since it seems more likely that she would have been exposed to craft beer and its artisan leanings. But c’est la vie, just enjoy the painting for what it is — which is quite a lot — and not for what it could have been.
Below is her biography from Erpino’s website:
Ann Erpino earned a bachelor’s degree in Fine Art at U.C. Berkeley. She has traveled to many archaeological sites and natural landscapes, collecting reference material for her paintings.
Ann taught art classes for five years, and worked as a scenographic artist, mural painter, portraitist, curator, workshop organizer, and docent before becoming a full time painter in 2001.
She is currently finishing ‘The Science Series,’ 80 small paintings depicting nanotechnological research projects of the Erik Winfree Laboratory at Caltech. Ten of her paintings illustrating consciousness, commissioned by Dr. Christof Koch at Caltech, will be published this Spring.
Ann won the Los Angeles 2007 Open Call Award, and the Peoples’ Choice Award at Juried International Exhibition, A Taste of Chico. Her work belongs to collectors worldwide.
There isn’t much more information about Ann Erpino’s artwork, although a search will reveal she’s involved in numerous projects in the L.A. art scene. You could also visit her MySpace page and, of course, her own website, annerpino.com.