About
Mad Art Lab is a group blog about the intersection of art, science and geek culture. All Mad Art Lab contributors are artists or creative adjacent representing a wide variety of mediums and occupations such as webcomics, music, writing, painting, sculpting, design, crafting, engineering, costuming, coding, publishing, cooking, science, education, and performance art.
This blog is part of the Skepchick Network. See our Commenter Code of Conduct here.
Amy Davis Roth a.k.a. Surly Amy is the fearless leader and managing editor of this team of super-intelligent and highly creative artists poised to take over the universe. They keep talking about the world but Amy has bigger plans. Amy is a multi-media artist who practices art every day. She is the creator and maker of Surly-Ramics. She also writes for Skepchick.org and is co-host of Mad Art Cast. Follow her on twitter @SurlyAmy or support her work on Patreon!
Ryan is a professional nerd, teaching engineering in the frozen north. Somewhat less professionally, he is a costumer, author, blacksmith, juggler, gamer, serial enthusiast, and supporter of the Oxford comma. He can be found on twitter and instagram @studentofwhim.
If you like what I do here, feel free to leave a tip in my tipjar.
Raychelle is an analytical chemist in academia. She’s also an active science communicator and an over-active twitter user. To relax from a day of mad scientist duties, Raychelle enjoys sci-fi/horror movies, knitting, DIY shenanigans, and consuming books of all genres
Donna is the sole proprietor of Sheer Brick Studio, an award-winning design shop in the Historic District of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She has the great fortune to work with good guys who specialize in being talented badasses. She’s a preferred vendor to her clients, Ms. Information for George Hrab and the Geologic Universe, the Diva of Design for Dark Øverlord Media, the media technician for her city’s Mounted Police, and now, a Skepchick at Mad Art Lab. Donna likes cheesecake and world domination but would much prefer a plate of ziti and a nice Sangiovese. She enjoys the occasional ribald typography joke. If the design industry tanks, Donna’s backup plan is working as a dominatrix named Madame Ligature.
Brian George is an illustrator and designer who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. In his spare time, he makes videos of Spirograph drawings and complains about doing laundry.
Website: www.bgeorge.com
Twitter: @brianggeorge
Insta: @brianggeorge
If you’re into what I’m doing, feel free to throw down a bit in my tipjar here: @brianggeorge
Katie is an animator and illustrator of human innards living in Chicago. A childhood of looking at icky body slices at the Museum of Science and Industry, grossing herself out with Encyclopedia Britannica, and an unshakable jonesing to make stuff led her to this obscure profession. Her favorite color is shiny, but tarnished metal finishes come in a close second. She lives in a Victorian era horse barn off Wicker Park with two chinchillas, Joe Buck (a stud) and Ratso (who is walking here!) and cannot imagine living somewhere that doesn’t have multiple concert venues within spitting distance or one of the greatest skeptic groups in this fine country.
Beth is a graphic designer in Chicago, a superhero in her own mind, and absolutely nothing on TV. She wrangles fonts professionally, pummels code amateurishly, and has been known to shove fire in her face for fun. Fond of volunteering, late-night bursts of productivity, and making snacks, she dislikes grocery shopping and public transit and is only on her second smartphone. Her opinion is that you should try everything twice; if you don’t like it, you were probably doing it wrong the first time around. If external links are your thing, here are links to Twitter and Instagram, and you can support her continued weirdness by buying her a coffee or six.
Celia Yost is an illustrator who has done a little of everything at this point, from community newspaper covers to book illustrations to home
decor design. Her non-commercial work can be viewed at http://celiadrawing.blogspot.com/ and you can follow her on twitter @mocknot. She has a BFA from The Cleveland Institute of Art, a love of drawing monsters, and a large collection of art supplies.
A survivor of two philosophy degrees, Jim Tigwell spends his days solving interesting problems in software. By night he can be found at poetry slams and whatever art opening has the strangest cheese selection. Host of the biweekly Concept Crucible podcast and occasional blogger, Jim is also a juggler, musician, magician, and maker of digital things. You can find his music and videos at Woot Suit Riot, a channel that doubles as a home for wayward and timid creators. Observe his antics there, or heckle directly on Twitter @ConceptCrucible. If the software and internet game doesn’t pan out, he’s determined to be a great Canadian vampire hunter.
Seelix, aka Emily, is a Science Communicator, Forensic Anthropologist, Costumer and QA Analyst, sometimes, but not usually, all at once. She is not actually in the business of world domination herself, but she will be designing the uniforms and hiding the bodies for our future overlords. Strengths: textile manipulation, cultural theory, mad cocktail skills, and explaining big concepts in little words. Weaknesses: Every time she hears someone misuse poisonous or venomous, she must make a 4d10 willpower check for at least 35 or she has to stop everything she’s doing and correct the offender. Weapons of choice: pedantry, sarcasm, the eye-searing purple of her Batgirl costume, too many degrees, and her top-secret Mai Tai recipe. Emily can usually be found lurking in dark corners of the internet as Seelix on Twitter, on Google+ and even occasionally at her blog This View of Life. She has a phobia of free time, so she organizes conferences, conventions and science events to take up that time. (Photo by Jamie Bernstein.)
Steve is an expat Canadian who now lives in North Carolina. He has worked, at one time or other, as: a TV repairman, a security guard at a children’s hospital, and a janitor in a strip club. His current day job is as a computer programmer for a bank, which doesn’t involve nearly as much being electrocuted and/or cleaning up vomit. He has a patent for a “Folding Stereoscopic Computer Display”, which sounds a lot more impressive than it really is. He’s created various “artworks”, including a baby woolly mammoth with a jetpack, marshmallow bunnies, Edvard Munch, a Giger counter, and a rainbow-farting unicorn gun. He’s recently taken up writing short stories, and is currently segueing into novels. His first book, “Dandelion Seeds”, was written largely by accident (it’s… complicated). He can be found on Twitter @treelobsters.