Nearly a century later, in a bungalow three blocks from the sun-baked crowds of Rockaway Beach, New York, Karen Ingram meticulously paints portraits of flower blossoms in a Petri dish using a medium of yeast. She calls her series “Biogenetic Blooms”: blue roses, yellow and orange daffodils, red tulips, pink orchids, columbines, snapdragons, irises, black-eyed Susans.
The process is surprisingly tricky. The paints, though rich with microbial life, are translucent, and Ingram, a professional artist and designer, cannot see her strokes. She guesses where to place her ‘brushes’ — Q-tips, toothpicks and biopsy needles. “I’ve always been a painter. I’ve always made art. But I had to learn how to work with these new materials.”
