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      As a young boy I developed a strong interest in living things, especially the “creepy crawly
critters” I encountered in the various parts of the U.S. in which we lived. Kenyon College
introduced me to a great intellectual world in which Biology existed in forms of great interest to
me. This led to graduate school at Emory University and a career as a researcher and teacher
in the biological sciences. Teaching assignments led to scholarly studies in the history and
philosophy of science as well as invertebrate biology. In my biological research I’ve let the
organisms, mainly molluscs, take me from embryonic development of marine and terrestrial
snails, to reproductive biology of snails, to behavior of snails and slugs, and most recently, to
the creation of digital videos of molluscs and other invertebrate creatures in action. Eschewing
the competitive struggle for external funding, I have pursued those projects which fit both my
interests and the facilities available to me. Thus in my biology I have often dealt with the
obscure, overlooked, little studied and little known.
      As an artist, I am essentially self-taught. Although begun as a way to relax, my family and
friends encouraged me to ‘go public’ with my artistic endeavors. In doing so I adopted “Jas.”,
the abbreviation for James, used by my grandfather, a dentist whose real passion was ceramics.
      In an age when we have the technological ability to destroy the environment on which we
depend, it is essential that we gather the knowledge of and foster the respect for the natural
world necessary for survival. Respect for the natural world grows out of “...an aesthetically
informed consciousness of the beauties of organic nature...”*. In my art, I try to evoke that
consciousness by depicting those creatures, events or processes that are too small, too fast or
too unusual to have won a place in the hearts and minds of most people. Knowledge of our
scientific understanding of the living world does not exclude the recognition of its beauty and its
potential to provide meaning to our experience.
      Forty years as a professional biologist, including twenty years of teaching college students
about the wonders of invertebrate animals, has provided me with both the knowledge and
aesthetic pleasure that provides the basis of my art. My current project is to focus on the
freshwater and marine creatures that can only be studied with the microscope. The very
existence of such creatures is unknown to most, yet their role in the environment and the
intricate beauty of their structure and behavior should engender our profound respect. Their
survival may well be necessary for our own.

*. I. Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1998 “Ernst Haeckel – The Artist in the Scientist” in Ernst Haeckel Art
                 Forms in Nature. M. Ashdown (ed.) Prestal Verlag, Munich (English Trans.
                 M. Schons, 2008).

Need more information e-mail me:     aestheticmollusc@yahoo.com

Links:
Conservation: Xerces Society

Art: Mid Michigan Artists
Studio 1219
The art roof
Nature Photographer, Mark S, Carlson

Molluscs:   Man and Mollusc
American Malacological Society