“Engineering is more of an art than a science.”

For the controls and robotics engineers at Brave, this tongue in cheek saying comes up fairly often around the office. Given our role as leading systems integrators and engineering/manufacturing consultants who are tasked with navigating through a multitude of technologies and options available in order to solve our client’s problems, the phrase becomes astonishingly accurate. Solving the complex problems our customers bring us requires flexibility, creativity, and familiarization with a myriad of technologies, materials and methods; much like an artist.

For one of our employees, this overlap is an essential part of who she is and how she thrived through the trying times of the strict quarantine experienced this spring.

QUARANTINE CHRONICLES pt.2 – Engineering & Art

Melissa Falkner, one of our controls leads here at Brave, has always enjoyed creating and seeing things come together. As a teenager, she received art lessons from a local artist and pursued painting passionately as a hobby for years, quietly developing her skills simply for her own satisfaction.

It was in the beginning of this year as her life had settled down and she settled into a stable career at Brave that she decided to return to art and started painting once more as a pastime. She began a portrait of her beloved Viszla Tiberius who had passed away in order to remember him. The labour of love took 3 months to complete over the winter.

When COVID-19 emerged and our country shut down, Melissa like so many others, found herself with an abundance of free time. In order to keep herself busy during quarantine and eager to start another art, Melissa decided to start a Facebook page dedicated to her artwork.

On the page she shared pictures of her completed works and decided to hold a contest for family, friends and fans to submit photos of their pets. The photo that received the most likes and promotion would be the subject of her next piece. This contest would serve to give her artwork some recognition and also supply her with the added motivation to complete the project since it was for a customer and not just for herself.

You can see the entire progression of this piece that was completed entirely in quarantine on Melissa’s Facebook Page!

As the world slowly returns to a semblance of normal, Melissa is grateful for the time she was able to spend re-immersing herself in a long forgotten passion and pastime. Though she is able to spend more time outdoors and safely visit with more friends and family she still spends several hours a week painting as a way to relax and unwind. We hope she continues to pursue artwork and keep her skills fresh as letting talent like that go unused for ten more years certainly seems like a waste!