JAMESTOWN, N.Y. — After graduating from SUNY Jamestown Community College this summer, Sam Gast still needed to put the finishing touches on one more assignment.
Walk into the Science Center on the Jamestown Campus, swing into the study room, and there it is on the long wall: a large mural that features the faces of six pioneers of science, depicted in different colors of the rainbow – starting with Galileo in red and extending to Chien-Shiung Wu in violet.
The mural was unveiled this fall after Gast, a Studio Arts major, completed the painting at summer’s end.
“Students are constantly in there,” Gast said. “They can see it. It kind of lightens up the place.”
The mural includes the faces of Galileo; Mary Anning, a British woman known as the mother of paleontology; Marie Curie, a physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering radioactivity research; Albert Einstein; George Washington Carver, a prominent Black agricultural scientist in the early 20th century; and Wu, a Chinese American physicist who separated uranium into uranium-235 and uranium-238 for the Manhattan Project and conducted the Wu experiment for which her colleagues were honored for the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957.
“I chose a timeline of important scientists throughout history, starting with Galileo,” Gast said. “With each scientist I included a couple of different symbols of their accomplishments.”
It took most of the spring semester for Gast and JCC Art instructor Madison LaVallee to earn approval and funding from the college to begin work. Gast had full control over the design, colors, and scientists shown in the mural. Project support was provided by Lavallee, Biology assistant professor Andy Pitoniak, and JCC Career Services manager Annie Chartrand.
“I am a supporter of art and science working in combination … the STEAM idea,” Gast said. “I wanted a way to open that idea up a little bit to the students who are in the science department.”
Gast is now studying painting, chemistry, and art history at SUNY Fredonia, with the goal of one day continuing in the art conservation master’s program at Buffalo State University. Gast would ultimately like to earn a doctorate in Archaeology with a focus on Mayan studies.
Gast, who is originally from Waco, Texas, returned to college as an adult student after working as a veterinarian technician. The Jamestown resident originally focused on computer science before being drawn to art.
“I've always loved painting and art,” Gast said. “I never took any official art classes. I was never in art in high school or anything, but I like drawing and painting. I was initially thinking web design and things like that because I was still in the mindset of computer science and the digital age that we live in. But as I experienced the classes and I found myself constantly wanting to work harder and spend more time in the studio, I realized that the physical art is something I enjoy.”
LaVallee suggested art conservation as a potential career for Gast.
“I looked into it and I realized that it really clicked with the things that I was loving to do in the classes,” Gast said. “I like fixing things. I like solving problems, and (art conservation) really combines those.
“I love my professors there at JCC,” Gast continued. “I still have a great relationship with Maddi (LaVallee) and with Nate (Jeffery, adjunct instructor). They've been incredibly helpful in their honesty and what it takes to go forth in the art world. They both really enjoy teaching, and I think that really reflects in their day-to-day classes and how students are interacting with them. I think that majorly impacted how enthusiastic I got to become about this.”