Y O U R O T H E R L I F E Arts and Sciences |
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Photo by John Davis |
Art has long offered Ellen Kellner a break from the rigors
of her scientific pursuits. She's been a painter and a
sculptor, and when she came to Baltimore in 2005 to begin
taking the prerequisite courses she'd need to enroll in the
School of
Nursing's accelerated BS program, she focused on
stained glass. "It's very therapeutic, grinding the glass and getting the shape you want," she says. "It can be difficult, sensitive, and it really takes patience." Before coming to Baltimore, Kellner, who holds a PhD in microbiology from Emory University, was doing postdoctoral work at the University of Arizona, studying Coccidioides posadasii, the fungus that causes valley fever. She decided to leave research science and pursue nursing because she wanted to work more directly with patients.
Making stained glass fits her scientist's nature. "You sort
of get something in your mind's eye, then it's a problem
you have to solve. It's a puzzle," she describes. Once
you've sketched that idea onto paper, you break it down
into parts that can be translated into glass pieces. You
tape the individual pieces of the pattern onto glass, score
the glass, then break it. Then you use a grinder to smooth
the edges, line the pieces with copper foil, and solder
them together. It is meticulous work. "I'm really
detail-oriented. I like precision and symmetry," Kellner
says. "In nursing, you can save somebody's life by being
detail-oriented. At school, they've really driven that
point home." |
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