Quarmby (left) with her studentsSIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY, GREG EHLERS Gabriola Island, which covers but 22 square miles and is home to a mere 4,000 people, is just 40 miles from Lynne Quarmby’s molecular biology and biochemistry lab at Simon Fraser University outside Vancouver, British Columbia. But to get from Quarmby’s scientific home on the mainland to her bucolic cabin in the woods on the so-called “Isle of the Arts” requires two ferries and three hours.
Quarmby has completed the round trip almost every weekend since the cabin was finished in December. Her Friday evening commute is usually spent unwinding with a novel; on Monday morning, she’s pulling out her computer to gear back up for the scientific week ahead. “We only have a little life to live, and I chose the science,” Quarmby reflects, “but maybe part of me is a frustrated artist.”
Since she began painting in 2005, though, she is perhaps becoming less frustrated—to the extent that any artist is ever satisfied with her work.
“I’ve really just been exploring the more artistic side of myself,” she explains. “I think there are a lot of people who are artistically, creatively driven and they’ve managed to funnel their energies ...
