In March 2020, infectious disease researcher Natalie Vestin began painting Dala horses to deal with the complexity and sadness of seeing so much COVID-19 data every day. The rosemaling and dalamålning strokes on the horses became a way to represent data on infection rates, clinical signs and symptoms, and the changes that quickly affected everyone’s day-to-day lives. During this presentation, Natalie will talk about how she’s adapted a folk-art technique to respond to a current event, discuss her process and personal relationship with art and science, and offer insight into her “data horses” and what they can teach us about the power of folk art to make meaning of our lives during a pandemic.