Found art: the yeast vacuole

ABSTRACT Over the past 9 years I have worked with artists who have used various media to portray the process of autophagy. This has included paintings, protein music, a piano composition, a wood sculpture, a quilt, and a dance. Here, I describe a two-part project that focuses on the vacuole/lysosome. In the initial part of the work I assembled the found-art vacuole; the second part involved the work of a professional watercolor artist, who describes his part of the project from a non-scientist’s perspective.