Jessica Halonen conducts extensive research for her works, delving into the intersections between art, science, and history. She has engaged with topics that include genetic engineering in the pharmaceutical industry and the historical and metaphorical implications of the color blue. Her new paintings, which fuse abstraction and trompe l’oeil, are informed by a collection of toxic wallpaper samples published by the Michigan State Board of Health in 1874. The book warns of the hazardous particulate matter shed by these decorative papers that were printed with lead- and arsenic-based pigments typical of the time.