Born in Minneapolis, Lauralee Guilbault was raised in the western suburbs Undergraduate degree in chemistry from Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin (1982), Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Tennessee (1988)Have been at Alverno since 1993 (worked at Lakeland College and Hobart and William Smith Colleges previous to that)I participated in the Iron Printmaker competition last summer at Redline.
It seems I have always thought like a scientist – observations are very important – looking at things in detail and analyzing what I see and asking why it is that way. I understand things by breaking them down into smaller pieces, simplifying the complex as models that my brain has a better chance of making sense of. I like to look for patterns in things, but then realizing that nothing is perfect – I look deeper in order to see the variations in the patterns that make something unique. For instance thought I think both are beautiful I prefer the odd shape of a freshwater pearl over the perfect symmetry of a salt-water pearl.
I do not think of myself as an artist – but I enjoy creating things and expressing ideas in multiple modes – including pictures, sounds and movement. I think in pictures just as much as I do in words, so I try to communicate that way as well. When I am discussing chemistry I almost always do as much drawing as talking. I tell my students that my pictures aren’t really all that good – but they like them anyway. I have had students ask me why I move around so much when I am in front of a class – I find myself acting out what a molecule is doing, or try to mimic the shape of a graph with my arms. I think visualization is very important part of thinking.
I do like art very much – In my classes I teach about spectroscopy which is the interaction of light and matter – maybe that is why I like to do stained glass. I have had my upper level students do paper chromatography projects, encouraging them to use the experience to both better understand some principles of chemistry, and to encourage them to see how science can be creative and beautiful. This past spring I co-taught a course with Dara Larson, at Alverno, on papermaking and color-writing.
