Ashley Smart
The world is an extraordinary place. The way light changes the color of leaves in a tree throughout the day, the way tiny bracts grow microscopic hairs in unexpected patterns, the way a protein can change its function after just a single amino acid replacement, the way a seed will fluff up when put in water, the way a fruit fly will extend its proboscis when it tastes sugar with its feet.
I love wondering about things I observe in the world. My art reflects this in the intricacies of details and the way different elements interact together. The delicate dance of science and art.
For many years I followed my curiosity scientifically and worked on answering many research questions within developmental neurobiology, protein engineering, neurodegeneration, and systems neuroscience. I’ve since set aside my research to focus on art.
I’m currently based in the California Bay Area and my commissioned work includes botanical plates for the California Academy of Sciences, lab website splash images for scientists, and graphite landscape drawings among others.
Education
BA - Neuroscience - Pomona College 2010
PhD - Neuroscience - University of California San Francisco 2017
Postdoc - Stanford University
If you are interested in hearing more about my graduate work, I participated in a three-minute thesis competition where we summarize our years of research in three minutes. The talk is called Death by Light.
Courses
BIOS 272 Art and Science Minicourse - Stanford University (Co-Instructor and Course Designer, Winter 2023, Spring 2024)
Exhibitions
"Natural Wonders" San Francisco Women Artists Gallery (647 Irving St., SF, CA); April 4th-May 6th, 2017
"UCSF Day of Discovery" UCSF Library (530 Parnassus Ave., SF, CA); April 12th, 2017
Publications
Progenitor Art and Literary Journal (2018) —also included online audio recording about the inspiration for my “Enchanted Forest” painting
UCSF Magazine “Brainy Bridge” (Winter 2018) p. 48
York R., Brezovec L., Coughlan J., Herbst S., Krieger A., Lee S., Pratt B., Smart A., Song E., Surorov A., Matute D., Tuthill J., Clandinin T. (2022) “The evolutionary trajectory of drosophilid walking” Current Biology
Smart A.D., Pache R.A., Thomsen N., Kortemme T., Davis G.D, and Wells J.A. (2017) “Engineering a light-activated Caspase-3 for precise ablation of neurons in vivo” PNAS 114(39):E8174-8183
Smart A.D., Course M., Rawson J.M., Selleck S.B., VanVactor D., and Johnson K.G. (2011) “Heparan sulfate proteoglycan specificity during axon pathway formation in the Drosophila embryo”. Dev. Neurobio. 71, 608-618
Photograph by Bryan Seybold