{"id":1632,"date":"2022-12-15T15:44:52","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T15:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/?p=1632"},"modified":"2023-01-09T17:22:04","modified_gmt":"2023-01-09T17:22:04","slug":"finding-art-in-science-and-science-in-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/2022\/12\/15\/finding-art-in-science-and-science-in-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Art in Science and Science in Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written By:<\/strong> Erica Davis, PharmD, BCPS, BCPP, advanced practice pharmacist<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot<\/a>I\u2019ve always described psychiatric pharmacy as more of an \u201cart form\u201d than a science because medication therapy in psychiatry is less black-and-white than other pharmacy specialties. This is definitely true in my practice as an advanced practice pharmacist with the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. Through the Mental Health Program<\/strong><\/a>, I provide clinical pharmacy services at Springfield Hospital Center in Sykesville, Md., a state psychiatric hospital, where patients are often severely mentally ill. I am consulted daily to provide recommendations for patients who do not respond to medication therapy, often after several failed trials. A career in psychiatric pharmacy is a good balance between my logical left brain and artistic right brain, allowing creativity in medication therapy within the confines of evidence-based practice.<\/p>\n

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, I struggled with the demands of being a health care worker. To cope, I turned to my creative side.<\/p>\n

While experimenting with numerous mediums including needlework, clay, yarn crafts, painting, and epoxy resin, I kept coming back to my pharmacy roots and creating clay capsules, crocheted medicine, and eventually, incorporating real over-the-counter medications that I purchased into epoxy resin. As I began to show my creations to my coworkers, I was met with similar excitement.<\/p>\n

Medication comes in all different shapes, sizes, and colors and, as a pharmacist, it seemed inevitable to incorporate medicine into art. The UMB Holiday Craft<\/strong><\/a> fair in early December was my first chance to introduce Artfully Apothecary<\/strong><\/a> to like-minded individuals, and I was pleasantly surprised at the interest in my nerdy crafts including ornaments, coasters, paperweights, and wall art. I received many comments from customers about how they\u2019d \u201cnever seen anything like this\u201d and how \u201cunique\u201d it is. I was also pleased to share my work on UMB’s Instagram account<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

I think science-based art appeals to so many because those of us in STEM professions see the beauty and creativity in what we do. The ability to share that with others allows a glimpse into a world that doesn\u2019t always appear artistic at first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A pharmacist creates art using real medications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[489,389,488],"class_list":["post-1632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-art","tag-creative-arts","tag-erica-davis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1632"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1639,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1632\/revisions\/1639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}