Virve Hirsmaki '09 came to COA with a deep interest in the visual arts. She has since added science. Her ultimate goal is to
 possess a skill that will fit into a small carry-on bag - Virve hopes to become a doctor.
How did this young woman from Peltosalmi, Finland begin to incorporate science in her life? "I have come to see that the constant search for phenomena and names by the scientific community is a tool that furthers the aesthetic appreciation of life in all its forms," she says. "It is difficult to observe, appreciate, remember or communicate something unknown and anonymous in any medium. Science has given me the language to conceptualize the world around me in more depth and dimension from which to draw inspiration. Art has showed me how to see these phenomena with an open mind and the appreciation they deserve."
In the summer of 2007, Virve was given a grant that enabled her to work full-time on an art project in collaboration with COA professors John Anderson and Dru Colbert. Using untreated wool and found objects, she created a six-by-eight-foot mural that illustrates the ecology of Great Duck Island.
"The interdisciplinary nature of COA's education has enabled me to combine different, complementary visions for a fuller and more complex view of the world - COA has enabled me to articulate and channel my abstract and intuitive vision without constraining the source of this vision."
COA has enabled me to articulate and channel my abstract and intuitive vision without constraining the source of this vision.
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