He Painted Using Bacteria

Before he discovered antibiotics, Fleming also painted in addition to being a scientist. He produced amateur watercolors while a member of the Chelsea Arts Club. It is less commonly known that he also painted live things in a different media. Using bacteria, Fleming depicted ballet dancers, homes, warriors, women feeding their children, stick figures battling, and other situations. In order to achieve the desired hues, he grew microorganisms with various natural pigments in the desired locations.

He would put agar, a gelatin-like substance, in a petri dish and use a loop, a wire lab instrument, to inoculate various species in different areas of the plate. The paintings required a lot of technical skill to create. Fleming had to look for microorganisms with various colors and time his immunizations so that the several kinds matured at the same time. Only as long as it took for one species to develop into the other did these works exist. That led to a blurring of the boundaries between, for example, a hat and a face, as well as those between art and science.