{"id":106215,"date":"2017-03-07T13:02:17","date_gmt":"2017-03-07T18:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=106215"},"modified":"2017-08-03T09:17:28","modified_gmt":"2017-08-03T13:17:28","slug":"object-lesson-velvet-elvis-personalizes-biochemistry-lab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2017\/03\/07\/object-lesson-velvet-elvis-personalizes-biochemistry-lab\/","title":{"rendered":"Look What We Found: Velvet Elvis painting in a chemist’s lab"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the Dana Chemistry Hall lab of Paula Schlax, professor of chemistry, hangs a velvet Elvis painting. It\u2019s the standard version: a head and shoulders view of the costumed crooner at a microphone.<\/p>\n

The painting reflects the fact that, over time, a research lab begins to reflect the people and personalities who inhabit them, says Schlax. \u201cYou spend a lot of time in there, and you want to make it feel a little bit like home.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Elvis portrait was her choice. \u201cElvis was a huge joke in my family,\u201d she says. Her parents, who moved to Memphis, Tenn., when she was in college, lived near Graceland, and \u201cthe first few times I went down there, we had to tour Graceland every single time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"170307_Velvet_Elvis_Schlax_Lab_0074\"<\/a>

A velvet Elvis painting hands above a glassware drying rack in the Dana Chemistry Hall lab of Professor of Chemistry Paula Schlax. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

One day \u2014 her wedding day, it turns out \u2014 she was driving along when she spotted a velvet Elvis at a garage sale. She purchased it (25 cents), and it\u2019s been with her ever since.<\/p>\n

In 1998, Elvis went up on the wall of Schlax\u2019s first-floor Dana lab on the day she moved in, and he hasn\u2019t been moved since. \u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s ever been dusted,\u201d she says, adding that students \u201cget used to it. They think I\u2019m weird, and that\u2019s fine.\u201d (More than fine: Schlax won the 2016 Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching on the strength of recommendations from current and former students.)<\/p>\n

Against the backdrop of serious science, the Elvis painting gives the lab some comedic kitsch. \u201cIt\u2019s ugly as sin. It really is ugly,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s certainly never going up in my home. It can stay here forever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s about creating a feeling of home, says Paula Schlax, explaining the kitschy velvet Elvis painting in her Dana Chemistry Hall lab.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":106401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,11010,1,133,11009],"tags":[11321],"class_list":["post-106215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-arts","category-batesnews","category-creativity","category-the-college","tag-look-what-we-found"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106215"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108767,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106215\/revisions\/108767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}