University of Puget Sound Students Explore Color From Every Angle

Campus, Faculty, Students

The interdisciplinary course brings together faculty from the arts and the sciences.

On a recent Thursday afternoon, students in University of Puget Sound’s Connections 375: The Art & Science of Color class were split into two groups. One group combined various chemicals to produce Prussian blue—the first modern, synthetic blue pigment—while the other group foraged outside to find the ingredients to create ochre—one of the oldest naturally-derived pigments. The class, co-taught by Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry Dan Burgard and Professor of Art & Art History Elise Richman, is brimming with hands-on experiments, art projects, guest lectures, field trips, and in-depth discussions around a deceptively simple question: what is color?

“As a scientist, I’m trained to think of color as something objective, that you could put a number on, but the more you unpack it, the more you realize that there’s a lot more to it than saying a wavelength that’s this many nanometers equals this color,” says Burgard. “It’s such a unifying thing throughout biology, psychology, art, history, or economics. Color gives us a great jumping-off point into all these disciplines.”

As a Connections course, the class offers an interdisciplinary approach that blends art and science, with topics ranging from color theory and the cultural associations of various hues and pigments to the biology of vision and how the Earth’s atmosphere scatters light. Richman and Burgard approach each topic from a different vantage point, and they enjoy learning from each other as they share their expertise.

“It shows that there are a lot of different ways to go about solving problems,” says Richman. “So, when we paint or draw, we’re engaging our senses and engaging in discovery, then when we talk about the chemical side of things, like how different metals produce various pigments, we’re using a different lens. Teaching this class has really enriched my own thinking and I’m confident students are having those ‘aha’ moments, too.”

Professor of Art & Art History Elise Richman and Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry Dan Burgard co-teach The Art & Science of Color course.

Students making Prussian blue in the lab. — Students conduct hands-on experiments making pigments in the lab, go on field trips, and spend time making art.

Making ochre with a mortar and pestle. — While half the class made the synthetic pigment Prussian blue, the other half made ochre, a natural pigment made from iron-rich clay that has been used since paleolithic times.

A student in a colorful sweater paints during a studio session. — The interdisciplinary nature of the Art & Science of Color course is a hallmark of a Puget Sound liberal arts education.

In addition to lectures, classroom discussions, studio art, and lab time, the class also ventured to the Puget Sound Museum of Natural History to learn how beetles and butterflies utilize iridescence and to the nearby Museum of Glass to see how glassblowing artists manipulate heat to produce different hues in their final products.

“I’m a biochemistry major, so I don’t have a lot of experience with the art side, but I wanted to stretch myself and this class has been really eye-opening,” says Kobe Kwan ’25. “I especially liked going to the natural history museum and seeing how color emerges in nature.”

“Dan and Elise do a good job of making the material accessible,” adds economics major Aiden Siothun ’25. “Dan makes the science understandable and Elise is an amazing art teacher. I’m not a science or an art major, so this has been a great way to satisfy a core requirement.”

Two students painting in The Art & Science of Color course. — The interdisciplinary Connections course encourages students to get outside their comfort zone and continue to explore new ways of looking at the world.

Prof. Elise Richman gives feedback during a painting session. — The course draws students from the arts, sciences, and humanities to not only fulfill core requirements but to experience something new and engaging.

Prof. Dan Burgard, wearing a lab coat and safety goggles, gives a safety talk in class. — The course explores subtractive and additive color systems through the history of pigments, dyes, and technologies that project light, among other topics related to color.

Prof. Dan Burgard shines an ultraviolet light on a liquid in a glass container to produce a green/orange. — Through experiments, field trips, and studio art sessions, students explored cultural, chemical, artistic, biological, and sociological aspects of the colors that make up our world.

As the final project for the course, students present on a color of their choice at Puget Sound’s long-running Art + Sci Salon series, where they share the history of the color, how it appears in art, its psychological significance, its use in advertising, and much more, drawing on their academic interests to guide their research.

“In my group, I’m talking about Shakespeare’s use of the color green; for example, how he used green as a symbol of jealousy in Othello,” says English major Grace Beltran ’24.

The interdisciplinary nature of the Art & Science of Color course is a hallmark of a Puget Sound liberal arts education, especially through the university’s revamped Grow Core Curriculum, which encourages students to make connections outside of their primary field of study throughout all four years of their college experience.

“This is a fun course to teach, but it’s also great to see students make connections that go beyond the classroom,” says Burgard. “It’s the kind of class that students are still talking about in the hallway after the lecture and hopefully will think back on years from now.”

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