At about 15, I became passionately interested in science and painting. At Princeton, although I was a chemistry major, I devoted most of my time to painting in the “Open Atelier” of Dr. William Seitz. In graduate school, I continued to paint.

I taught physical chemistry in Istanbul and Madrid, traveled, painted, sold paintings, had several individual shows, and a lot of fun. I came under the only important influence in my painting life as apprentice to Aliye Berger-Boroni, Turkey’s leading painter. She said the only sensible thing I have ever heard anyone say about painting: “Rogers! See that line? There are a million lines I didn’t draw.” Returning to the U S, I found that some of the money I had spent living well in Europe belonged to the IRS. This made my next choice pretty easy: science or jail. In the ensuing years I published about a hundred scientific papers and eight books, and paid off the IRS.

My admiration for Chinese and Japanese art is clear. Although at no time did I want to follow or, worse, to imitate Piet Mondrian, the relationship of my main line of painting to his is also clear. Although I profess no “philosophy of art”, I find that I have gravitated toward the minimalist school. I find the work of Frank Stella (also a product of the Seitz “Open Atelier”) and Barnett Newman very congenial. I do not accept the notion that there is a difference between the creative process in the arts and the sciences. Those of us who try to see what others have not yet seen are in the same business.