Steampunk Phage

Masks are Cool

Though there are 26 vaccine candidates in clinical evaluation with 139 additional candidates in preclinical evaluation to date, we don’t yet have a vaccine that we can use to prevent coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection. For the time being, face masks are the best defense we have to prevent transmission.

Two recent case studies published in the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report highlight these findings. One shows how the use of face masks prevented the spread of SARS-CoV-2 from two infected, symptomatic hair stylists to their clients. Both stylists wore face masks and so did all their clients. None of the clients tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.

Absence of Apparent Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from Two Stylists After Exposure at a Hair Salon with a Universal Face Covering Policy — Springfield, Missouri, May 2020

The second report highlights what happens when face masks are not worn. Attendees at a Georgia summer camp were required to have a negative SARS-CoV-2 test prior to attending camp, but were not required to use face masks while at camp. In less than a week of attending camp, 344 attendees (58% of attendees) were tested for SARS-CoV-2 after a staff member was diagnosed with COVID-19. Among these, 260 (76%) tested positive.

SARS-CoV-2 Transmission and Infection Among Attendees of an Overnight Camp — Georgia, June 2020

From the many types of face masks available, my personal favorites are cotton cloth ones. The ones with soft elastic that loops around each ear. They are comfortable to wear, soft to the touch, fit snuggly around my nose and mouth, and are easy to wash. I run them through the washer in a delicates bag and dry them in the dryer. I have been happy with the quality and durability of Old Navy face masks. How often do I change them? As often as I change my underwear. I keep a bunch of clean ones (face masks) in a gallon size zip plastic bag and use a fresh one every morning. If only I could keep my glasses from fogging every time I step out of an air conditioned environment, but it’s a small price to pay for taking care of each other.

My latest graphic art design, Masks are Cool, commissioned by This Week in Virology’s (TWiV), Dr. Vincent Racaniello, is part of an effort to increase awareness of face mask usage to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission. The design was inspired by Milton Glaser’s iconic Dylan poster.

Milton Glaser’s Dylan poster

A Call to Action

A Call to Action – watercolor – 2020

For what it’s worth, my latest watercolor – A call to Action. It incorporates icons of movement (The Great Wave Off Kanagawa by Hokusai; Anonymous, a hacktivist collective movement; and I can’t breathe, associated with the Black Lives Matter movement) to symbolize a cultural shift and mindset towards a more progressive and liberating movement to crush oppression. It’s all I’ve been thinking about these past few months. On display at the Pain, Process and Promise Exhibit at the Fort Myers Alliance for the Arts from July 10 to August 20, 2020.

The Great Wave Off Kanagawa by Hokusai

Anonymous hacktivist movement

I Can’t Breathe – Black Lives Matter movement

Phage vs. Bacteria

Phage vs. Bacteria – Virus in an epic battle to infect and conquer its host bacteria

Bacteriophage, or phage, viruses that infect bacteria, pre-date dinosaurs. They are the most abundant and diverse organisms in the biosphere. They have been in a constant state of evolution and have adjusted to their environment while exchanging genes and traits with their bacterial hosts. In the end, they make sense, and are beautiful in their own unique ways, like a patchwork quilt or a post-apocalyptic robot constructed with spare parts and gears.

Original Phage vs. Bacteria – oil pastel on paper, 14″ x 11″

Phage vs. Bacteria depicts one virus in an epic battle to infect and conquer its host bacterium. My inspiration was Jules Verne’s 19^th century novel, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. The phage is the sea monster that attacks Captain Nemo’s submarine, the Nautilus, in this instance, a bacterium. Both phage and bacterium are depicted with steampunk elements in line with the style of the Nautilus in the 1954 science fiction film. The original artwork was an oil pastel on paper. I then vectorized the image for printing. This design was the visual identity for a regional science symposium for undergraduate students in Florida in April 2018.

Florida symposium t-shirts

Zika in the Americas

Zika in the Americas – Virus experts collaborate to study an international health crisis

Zika was first isolated in Uganda in 1947. For decades Zika infections in humans were sporadic. Perhaps cases of Zika went underreported, since its symptoms were similar to other fever-causing diseases and most cases are asymptomatic.

By the 1980s, Zika had spread beyond Africa and had become endemic, or habitually present, in Asia. Many individuals living in these regions may be immune to the virus.

The first reported Zika outbreak outside of Africa and Asia occurred in the Pacific, in Micronesia, in 2007. To our knowledge there were no associations with microcephaly or Guillain-Barre reported at the time.

Zika transmission in the Pacific wasn’t reported again until 2013, when French Polynesia experienced an explosive outbreak. In 2014 further outbreaks were reported in New Caledonia, Easter Island and the Cook Islands. When French Polynesia experienced another outbreak in 2014, there were reports of Zika being transmitted to babies, most likely in utero, and complications associated with Guillian-Barre in adults.

By early 2015 the virus had spread to the Americas, and the first confirmed case of locally acquired Zika in the region was confirmed in May 2015 in Brazil.

Zika in the Americas – T-shirts were printed for collaborating scientists.

This design depicts the spread of mosquito-transmitted Zika virus, as it traveled throughout 48 countries and territories in the Western hemisphere from 2015 to present day. A female mosquito (only females bite) is shown carrying a Zika virus particle. The virus spread explosively throughout the Americas by the bite of infected mosquitoes to people who had never been exposed.

Zika in the Americas became the visual identity for an international group of scientists that studied the spread of the virus throughout the Americas. Their findings were posted to bioRxiv and published co-currently as 3 separate articles in 2017 in the journal Nature.

Steampunk Phage

Steampunk Phage Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Original (left) and color negative (right).

Steampunk Phage – Its contagious style will be sure to delight your inner geek.

Bacteriophage, or phage, viruses that infect bacteria, pre-date dinosaurs. They are the most abundant and diverse organisms in the biosphere. They have been in a constant state of evolution and have adjusted to their environment while exchanging genes and traits with their bacterial hosts. In the end, they make sense, and are beautiful in their own unique ways, like a patchwork quilt or a post-apocalyptic robot constructed with spare parts and gears.

This was my first Steampunk Phage design. It was built from repurposed gears and machine parts like a retro-futuristic steampunk style robot. It became the visual identity for a regional science symposium for undergraduate students in Florida and later its negative color image became the theme for a week-long, international virus discovery workshop for science professors.