About the Artist
While art and science may sometimes seem at odds, one an effort to define reality, the other wholly subjective, both stem from fundamental curiosities about the world at large. “Many scientists have hobbies in the arts,” Maren R. Laughlin says. “It’s a creative endeavor. Scientists build things, they create experiments, they imagine new worlds, and that same impulse is what drives artists.”
Laughlin is no different. After earning a PhD in physical chemistry from Yale, she has made a career at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where she is currently codirector of the Office of Obesity Research and Senior Advisor for Integrative Physiology in the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolic Diseases, part of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). But she has always had music.
“I learned to read music before I could read words,” she says. She studied music throughout her academic career, alongside chemistry, and began to focus on singing after graduate school. In addition to playing violin and piano, Laughlin spent 15 years as a professional soloist in DC area churches.
She began painting seriously during the pandemic, collecting photographs from friends and family to create portraits of ordinary people wearing their face masks. These pieces are still on display in the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, MD.
“Art is a conversation. A way to collaborate with other people,” she says. “Live music is a conversation between the performer and the audience. I think that’s what I like about creating portraits, as well. It’s a way to spend time with another person.”
On the Cover: The Rehearsal Studio
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the NIDDK. Since 1950, the institute has supported research that has led to enormous improvements in diabetes care. Devices like continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps, depicted in the painting, have made life easier for people with diabetes.
In honor of this milestone, Laughlin created The Rehearsal Studio as a celebration of movement and life. She collaborated with Gisele Sonnier, a dancer and student at Princeton University.
“We wanted to capture the joy and rhythm of dance,” Laughlin says. “Gisele worked with her classmates and a dance studio photographer to come up with poses we could incorporate into a painting, and we went back and forth to arrive at the final tableau.”
“Diabetes technology has been transformative, freeing people from multiple daily finger sticks and injections,” Laughlin adds. “People living with diabetes today can participate more easily and freely in all kinds of activities, with better overall glucose control, thanks to investments made by the NIDDK and the work of many dedicated scientists.”
