3 minute read
So You Wanna be a Dino “Drawer”
To many, scientists and artists would count as two separate species. But, as the husband and wife team of Julius Csotonyi and Alexandra Lefort prove, art and science can inhabit the same body, and even live together in harmony. They are both scientists and artists, specializing in “ancient space and times.”
While studying for his doctorate in microbiology, Julius also had an interesting sideline - drawing life-like reproductions of the ancient ‘kings of the earth’ - dinosaurs. As it turns out, his drawings were really, really good!
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Not many scientists’ work, after all, ends up on The Colbert Report. But we’ll get to that later…
These days, Julius and Alexandra make a living working as fulltime artists, whose scientific illustration work is prominently displayed from museums like the Royal Tyrrell and the Philip J. Currie, to special collector editions of Canadian coins.
To see more of his work, visit csotonyi.com Illustrations by Julius Cstonyi. Mural reproduced by permission of the Philip J. Currie museum, Grande Prairie.
“We met at a conference about Polar Science on Mars,” says Julius. “We were both doing PhDs about bioscience – me focusing on Earth life, she on Martian geology.”
He studied life in extreme environments on earth, like those around hydrothermal vents, which are good for modeling environments on planets, like Mars, where one might expect to find non-terrestrial life. And the couple discovered a shared interest in astro-biology. And, yes, that’s a thing.
Alexandra notes, “I had always been interested in astronomy and geology, which ultimately led to my studying planetary bodies in the solar system using remote sensing instruments aboard orbiting spacecraft.”
Julius’ path was more down to earth - or deep in the earth.
Like most people who end up working with dinosaurs for a living, Julius’ paleo-art fascination began as a youth. He grew up here in Alberta, after his parents escaped Hungary from behind the Iron Curtain. “I had an uncle who sponsored us as refugees,” he says, “and I remember when we arrived in December - the cold was a bit of a shock!”
“Dinosaurs were always with me,” he continued. “My parents buying beautifully illustrated dino books. And when my mom hand-drew me a picture of one of the dinosaurs, I was very impressed.” Then, in 1985, the Royal Tyrrell museum opened, and on their first visit the artwork really “blew” Julius away.
“My first big museum project was with the Tyrrell, just doing dinosaurs. Soon, the word of mouth spread and shortly after I worked on other images that required whole scenes – like the duck-billed dinosaur Brachylophosaurus at the Houston Museum, which has a mural and several other images of this amazing mummified dinosaur they have.” he recalls. “It was so complete that we could use the stomach contents to help us know what kind of plants composed its ecosystem!”
Since then, Julius has gone on to become one of the key artists in making panels and murals for the Royal Tyrrell Museum, including the plaques for “Alberta’s Fossil Trail,” which feature reconstructions of particularly interesting paleo-ecosystems from key parts of Alberta with images of dinosaurs in lifelike, and scientifically accurate, ecosystems.
To see more of his work, visit csotonyi.com Illustrations by Julius Cstonyi. Mural reproduced by permission of the Philip J. Currie museum, Grande Prairie.
Another type of art that the couple creates appears on many special collector edition coins created by the Royal Canadian Mint. Alexandra created a coin showing Canada from space in honour of Roberta Bondar, Canada’s first woman astronaut. Julius did one to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the NHL. But the most expensive coin is the maple leaf Julius drew. It was struck on a solid kilogram of silver or gold. The gold version costs $69,000 each!
Equally spectacular are Julius’s ‘glow in the dark’ illustrations. These unique coins show the dinosaur in the light of day, but glow to display its internal skeleton in the dark. Those were so unique that Stephen Colbert talked about them on his very popular late night U.S. comedy show.
With chops like those, it’s no wonder that both science-artists are in demand nowadays to illustrate other people’s work.
Julius says “On a new scientific paper, having a nice picture really helps, So a lot more people are doing it because it helps sell the science, especially to the public. A picture can convey findings or principles to people who would not bother to read the article.”
By A. R. Gibson
Turns out, whether it’s in deep space or a million years ago, a picture is STILL worth a thousand words.
