Is There Science Behind This Art?
I was one of those odd kids who liked to read the encyclopedia rather than regular children’s books. An encyclopedia set, the British classics, and—my favorite—the entire 28-collection of Time-Life’s Library of Art were in our home’s small library.
While other children were making friends with Winnie the Pooh and The Cat In The Hat, my best friends were Leonardo da Vinci, Claude Monet, Francisco Goya, and other painters from the Time-Life art book collection. Hour after hour and year after year, I learned about the lives of these amazing artistic people, studied their art, and shared many of my deepest thoughts and feelings with them. Something inside me told me they would understand.
One of my favorite artists was Leonardo da Vinci. As a child, I liked how he combined science and art. Maybe that’s why today I like to turn evidence-based, scientific findings into art.
These paintings may look like beautiful works of floral art, but they actually contain quite a bit of evidence-based design science.
The stems are rooted in soil, which suggests a continuation of life. Cut flowers in a vase or a cut bouquet are connected to death since cut flowers are not rooted in life-giving soil and will soon die.
Happy Flowers In Soil, 36”x36” by Dorothea Sandra, EDAC
Peace And Love, 36”x36” by Dorothea Sandra, EDAC
Another example of the science within these paintings is the way the stems have been laid out. I once read in a psychology article that people are wired for survival, not enjoyment. I recently checked this out with AI, and this is what Google AI said:
“Humans are primarily wired for survival, not enjoyment. Our bodies and minds evolved over millions of years to prioritize self-preservation and reproduction. While we do experience pleasure and joy, these feelings serve as motivational rewards to encourage behaviors that aid in our survival.”
In the paintings above, seeing beyond the stems triggers happy brain chemicals like dopamine. Being able to see beyond the stems suggests to our brains that this means safety. Back in the days when humans were hunters, seeing through tall, thick grass kept people safe from hidden predators.
Different evidence-based design examples include the cheerful combination of colors I used and the playful arrangement of the flowers.
Dynamic Cities Of The Future, an abstract work of art by Dorothea Sandra, EDAC
In Dynamic Cities Of The Future—which is in a completely different category of art—science is still very much a part of the design. The idea behind this design is that cities of the future can be fun and happy and super smart and sustainable.
Looking closer, actually inside the abstract art, there are smart city technology and sustainability symbology and iconography as part of the design.
Science and art have been combined to make a work of art.
I have been given the great honor of participating in the SWATCH ART PEACE HOTEL artist residency program in Shanghai, China. From mid-February to mid-May 2026, I will be staying at the hotel, where I will receive living and art studio space.
My delight and focus will be to combine science and art by painting smart city technology and sustainability accomplishments throughout beautiful Shanghai and other super fabulous places in China.
Many people have expressed a desire to follow these adventures. If you’d like to come along online, please sign up below.
Smart and Sustainable Cities and China
Continuing on my Smart City and Sustainability artistic adventures, and in preparation for my 3-month stay in Shanghai, I have been doing an abundance of research on China.
When I first told people here in the United States that I was going to paint in China, many responses were: “What do you want to do that for?” and “Are you sure you will be safe?”
Separating myself from the naysayers—who I assumed only listened to one heavily biased news/commentary channel—I pressed on.
Both intellectually and artistically, what I discovered was truly fascinating and refreshingly delightful!
When I first started painting my Smart City Art Series, created in 2024, my main focus was on capturing cities in motion through abstract art. I didn’t realize this at the time, but what I had created was an overall, general view of a fun, dynamic city in motion.
Happy City In Motion by Dorothea Sandra. In creating this painting, I embraced the chaos and beauty of motion, infusing my canvas with the energy of a bustling cityscape. Utilizing bold acrylic strokes and an abstract expressionism style, my artwork erupts with vibrant colors and dynamic shapes that capture the perpetual movement and rhythm of urban life.
In Happy Green Cities Of The Future, also part of my Smart City Art Series and a featured painting at the 2025 Sustainability Research and Innovation International Congress in Chicago, I used vibrant swirls of color and form to reflect a vision of connectivity within urban life. Bright blues, passionate reds, and lively yellows dance together, depicting energetic city centers that are safe and welcoming and harmonize well with nature. This painting celebrates the fusion of progress and environmental stewardship, aiming to inspire a brighter, greener future in every location it graces.
"In Pretty City Art, there is a swirl of emotion and color where I channeled my deepest joy and curiosity about the urban landscape into each stroke. Utilizing acrylics, I created an abstract, expressionistic celebration of city life, capturing its rhythmic chaos and vibrant diversity. This painting bursts with energy and colors that dance together, perfect to invigorate any space with a spirit of creativity and inspiration.
In August 2025, I was awarded a 3-month artist residency at the lovely Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai, China, beginning 2026 mid-February to mid-May. After immersing myself in my initial research for this 3-month stay, I soon realized that merely going out and about in Shanghai and other locations in China and merely painting them in the abstract would never capture the reality of what was actually happening in China.
What I discovered from this research is that there is a fabulous, awesome, and historically significant technological revolution happening in China—right now!
Through smart planning and implementation, China has transformed from a manufacturing hub to a global technological leader.
It has jumped to the forefront of telecommunications, e-commerce, and smart city development.
Not only has it built a generation of tech-savvy leaders ready to drive global innovation, its smart city expertise, digital infrastructure, and AI advancements offer other nations rapid urban transformations.
“China’s approach to smart cities and technology is revolutionizing not only its own future but potentially the future of urban life around the world.” (Smart Cities, China’s Model Of Success by Eduardo Moreno L)
What I have also come to believe is that—before I paint Shanghai and certain smart and sustainable locations in China—I first want to understand these locations from a point of historical and scientific depth and knowledge.
Unlike a tourist on a week’s hurried vacation taking photographs, I don’t just want to go to China and paint its buildings and surface structures.
I want to capture, through abstract works of art, beautiful Shanghai and other locations and the smart city technology and sustainability vibrancy and life—happening right now—deep inside the soul.
In addition to scientific books about smart city technology and sustainability, my latest readings include Shanghai tourist guides, “The Yellow Emperor’s Classic Of Medicine, A New Translation Of The Neijing Suwen With Commentary by Maoshing Ni,” and “Smart Cities, China’s Model Of Success” by Eduardo Moreno L.
I am not leaving until the middle of February 2026, so if you have other recommended readings for me, I would be most grateful. Just send the titles to me at dorothea@dorotheasandra.com or contact me through my website at https://www.dorotheasandraart.com. Thank you!
Here are a few of the books I have been reading.
A NEW ABSTRACT ART STYLE RISING
SMART CITY EQUALITY by Dorothea Sandra, EDAC. Featured at the 2025 Sustainability Research and Innovation International Congress in Chicago.
Really? What makes this art so different?
It’s clean! It’s fresh! It has a science-based dopamine-triggering happy abstract style!
There is no universal objective criterion for judging abstract art; however, critics and enthusiasts can use several analysis approaches based on the artwork’s formal elements, the artist’s intent, and the viewer’s personal experience.
Certified evidence-based design artist, Dorothea Sandra, takes the latest scientific evidence and blends it with abstract art through a new art series. The intent of this art series, called SMART CITY ART, is to connect smart technology and sustainability science with happy dopamine-triggering evidence based design science and art.
Simply said, how is this done?
SMART CITY EQUALITY by Dorothea Sandra
At the 2025 SRI Sustainability Research and Innovation International Congress in Chicago, Dorothea Sandra's abstract paintings from the Smart City Art series were on display. Scientists and researchers gathered from around the world to speak on and discuss many of today’s topics in their fields. What were so many of them saying?
“The science is already here, but the information desperately needs to get out and be heard.”
Dorothea Sandra’s featured Smart City Art series at the 2025 SRI Sustainability Research & Innovation Congress, Chicago, USA.
Smart City Equality, the painting below, was a featured piece at this congress. Evidence-based design artist Dorothea Sandra takes the latest scientific evidence and blends it with abstract art.
ARTISTIC MERIT OF THIS ARTWORK
Skilled art techniques were essential to create this 24” x 24” work of art. The shapes, colors, and lines in the painting SMART CITY EQUALITY were arranged on the canvas to create a cohesive and visually pleasing (dopamine-triggering) experience. Composition and balance, color and value, line and shape, and texture were also successfully demonstrated.
Looking closer, especially at the symbology and iconography, the artwork shows a clear sense of purpose. It features, supports, and promotes the concepts of smart city technology and sustainability.
The emotional impact is unusual and perhaps even unique among many modern works of abstract art. Using knowledge gained from being EDAC, evidence-based design trained and certified, Dorothea Sandra drew from her background to deliberately and strategically create positive, dopamine-triggering happy emotions in viewers.
The formula of SMART TECHNOLOGY KNOWLEDGE + SUSTAINABILITY SCIENCE + EVIDENCE-BASED DESIGN + ABSTRACT ART TECHNIQUES = SMART CITY ART SERIES was used throughout this artwork.
SCIENTIFIC MERIT OF THIS ARTWORK
The concepts of equality and sustainability are deeply intertwined. Sustainability science focuses on achieving a just and thriving world for all, now and in the future. Achieving environmental sustainability is possible through addressing social equity, as environmental burdens and benefits are disproportionately distributed.
According to China Daily. com, “Thirty years ago, 186 countries met in Copenhagen, Denmark, for the first Social Summit for Social Development. The gathering was the largest meeting of world leaders ever at the time. By the end of the summit, their agenda was clear: the challenges faced by our societies are global and so are the solutions.
In response, governments vowed to put people at the center of global development. They recognized that social justice must be the foundation for economic progress if progress is to be sustainable. It means ensuring that people, regardless of gender, nationality, background or place of birth, have the right to live in dignity, with equal opportunities to work, thrive and succeed. Societies built on fairness work better, trust more and grow stronger.
The consensus of the summit became the cornerstone for the United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Since 2015, the SDGs have been the blueprint for achieving a socially just, peaceful and sustainable world. The deadline for their realization has been set for 2030.”
Price is not the prime consideration.
I kept the prices for the paintings in this series deliberately low. My primary purpose for creating this art is to celebrate and promote knowledge and favor for smart and sustainable cities in the future, not make a big art sale.
Price: $650
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For reduced International Shipping, please contact me at dorothea@dorotheasandra.com.
Inspiration: Evidence-based design for healthy cities
Category: Abstract Expressionism
Size: 24” x 24”
Medium: Premium acrylic paint on gallery wrapped canvas
To purchase this painting click here: https://dorotheasandraart.com/shop-/p/smart-city-equality
Here’s a little video featuring today’s art that actively promotes SMART and SUSTAINABLE CITIES today and in the future.
ENJOY!
I have been given the great honor of participating in the SWATCH ART PEACE HOTEL artist residency program in Shanghai, China. From mid-February to mid-May 2026, I will be staying at the hotel, where I will receive living and art studio space. My delight and focus will be to paint smart city technology and sustainability accomplishments throughout Shanghai and other super fabulous places in China. Many people have expressed a desire to follow these adventures. If you’d like to come along online, please sign up below.
A NEW ABSTRACT ART STYLE RISING
Fresh art style uses the latest scientific evidence and blends it with floral and abstract art.
Really? What makes this art so different?
It’s clean! It’s fresh! It has a dopamine-triggering happy style!
Evidence-based design artist Dorothea Sandra takes the latest scientific evidence and blends it with floral and abstract art.
Take a look at the first page of a recent magazine article about this rising art style.
In 2024, my Smart City Art series was born, and by 2025, it was featured at the 2025 SRI Sustainability Research and Innovation International Congress held at the Sheraton Grand Riverwalk Hotel in Chicago, June 2025.
Smart City Art series at the 2025 SRI Sustainability Research and Innovation International Congresss in Chicago.
ARTISTIC MERIT OF THE ARTWORK
In this 15-Minute Walkability painting below, which was also featured at the 2025 Sustainability Research and Innovation International Congress, I went deeper into the rhythmic pulse of urban life, where swirls of vibrant paths represent the bustling walkability of a smart city.
Each stroke and color choice pulsates with the dynamic interplay of technology and human connectivity, embodying the chaotic harmony of city living.
It’s a visual symphony that invites viewers to explore an abstract yet deeply interconnected world.
This painting brings an energetic and thought-provoking perspective into any space, enhancing the environment with a sense of modern vitality and colorful complexity.
It’s clean! It’s fresh! It has a dopamine-triggering happy abstract style!
15-Minute Walkability is a painting inspired by the science of walkability. It is a work of art that conveys messages, emotions, and ideas. Although an abstract, it does not lack a sense of deliberate decision-making.
SCIENTIFIC MERIT BEHIND THE ARTWORK
The science of 15-minute walkability is the concept that residents should be able to access their daily necessities and basic services within a 15-minute walk or bike ride from their homes. This human-centered approach to living aims to reduce car dependence, promote healthier lifestyles, improve environmental sustainability, and foster stronger communities by integrating amenities and green spaces into neighborhoods.
“With 70% of the world’s population expected to live in urban areas by 2030, cities have an increasingly important role in shaping human health, quality of life, and happiness. Mobility—the ability to move around freely and easily—is integral to the intrinsic value of a city. The renaissance of sustainable urban mobility has led to the reimaging of urban landscapes and urban areas to reclaim the streets and public spaces for people.
Encouraging walking and physical activity improves not only human wellbeing and health of cities but also manifests social, economic, environmental, and political benefits.”
This painting is no longer for sale. During the 2025 SRI congress, I told the University of Illinois I would donate any painting I brought with me to Chicago. 15-Minute Walkability was the painting they wanted.
I have been given the great honor of participating in the SWATCH ART PEACE HOTEL artist residency program in Shanghai, China. From mid-February to mid-May 2026, I will be staying at the hotel, where I will receive living and art studio space. My delight and focus will be to paint smart city technology and sustainability accomplishments throughout Shanghai and other super fabulous places in China. Many people have expressed a desire to follow these adventures. If you’d like to come along online, please sign up below.