Deluge of Ash in Wyoming

Late July 2012 in Wheatland, Wyoming, USA....HR Ranch.
Deluge of ash washing down from the Arapaho Fires. 
Ok, at last I am ready to describe it.

We had just arrived at the ranch.  This is a working ranch, mind you-- just down from the Bighorn Mountains.  No where near the easy wealth of Jackson Hole -- more prairie than Teton.  I was passing through for an overnight at my sister's family ranch with my triplet sisters and childhood friend.  Just arrived, and ditched our bags up the staircase with the bullet hole.  Sunset.  We had just finished pouring gin & tonics  to wash the dust down when we heard the sound of water gushing down the little branch of the Laramie River which runs next to the "big house." Figuring this was something to watch, we grabbed some plastic lawn chairs and settled in next to the cottonwoods.  First sip. 

By the second sip, it was clear that the sudden wash down from the distant mountains was rising rapidly enough to have my sister on her feet.  The water was boiling up; it was black with fine ash, and all the little creatures were thrashing onto the bank, dying from the fine silt filling their gills, lungs, and air tubes.  Shocking.

I have saved this ash for use in my drawing and paintings. 

Forest Fires of Greenland 3

As climate change brings forests to Greenland, so will it bring the forest ecologies of forest fires! Photo by Lisa Forman, with collaboration with the astounding members of the Chasing the Light Expedition (see the FB page!)

Forest Fires of  Kalaallit Nunaat

I created 2 simple ink & watercolor paintings, each of a driftwood stick with Greenlandic lichens.  One of them traveled with a different group to the scientific camp NEEM, which is further north and on the top of the Greenland ice cap.  There, its paints were partially dissolved in glacial meltwaters there and photographed about the base.  The 2nd painting is its companion, traveled with the Chasing the Light Expedition, and was also partially dissolved in glacial waters, where more green paints were released.  Like its companion painting, my hope is that they evoke the "greening" of the polar landscape, and its advance northward along the Greenland ice, from Disko Bay towards Thule. Both paintings were later partially burned by my collaborators.  Why?  If forests do advance into Greenland, eventually normal forest ecologies will be established on this currently treeless "continent-island"-- which would include the normal forest ecological cycles of forest fires.  These two "twinned" artworks will be iidentified by their GPS locations, be framed and shown together in future exhibitions, and be shown along with photographs of the artworks placed on a Greenland beach and in the NEEM research station.

Forest Fires of Greenland 2

Taken on a beach on the West Coast of Greenland in July 2012.

Photos by Lisa Forman, with collaboration with the astounding members of the Chasing the Light Expedition (see the FB page!) To her, my deepest gratitude!

First step-- The "Greening of the Arctic" as climate change advances by diluting the extra watercolor paint on the branch painting by dousing with glacial waters.

My statement about the project:

Forest Fires of  Kalaallit Nunaat

I created 2 simple ink & watercolor paintings, each of a driftwood stick with Greenlandic lichens.  One of them traveled with a different group to the scientific camp NEEM, which is further north and on the top of the Greenland ice cap.  There, its paints were partially dissolved in glacial meltwaters there and photographed about the base.  The 2nd painting is its companion, traveled with the Chasing the Light Expedition, and was also partially dissolved in glacial waters, where more green paints were released.  Like its companion painting, my hope is that they evoke the "greening" of the polar landscape, and its advance northward along the Greenland ice, from Disko Bay towards Thule. Both paintings were later partially burned by my collaborators.  Why?  If forests do advance into Greenland, eventually normal forest ecologies will be established on this currently treeless "continent-island"-- which would include the normal forest ecological cycles of forest fires.  These two "twinned" artworks will be iidentified by their GPS locations, be framed and shown together in future exhibitions, and be shown along with photographs of the artworks placed on a Greenland beach and in the NEEM research station.

Forest Fires of Greenland

Photo from Zaria Forman of the Chasing the Light Expedition (see Facebook page), taken on a Greenland beach in July 2012.

To her my deep gratitude.

Zaria says of this: "Beautiful painting by Diane Fiedler. She gave it to us to "deploy" in Greenland, with explicit directions to burn and then splash with glacier water before it was entirely destroyed. The burning part was tricky with damp paper and strong winds!"

Snowy Owl

The photo of snow-covered mountain peaks from Chasing the Light Expedition Facebook pages have reminded me of a this watercolor of mine of a snowy owl with an aurora borealis. Snowy owls are very close to my loft in South Boston-- just across the harbor at LOGAN AIRPORT! It is a favorite stop along their migration route to and from the Arctic.  See more about Audubon's Snowy Owl Project, which has tagged hundreds of owls, at the Snowy Owl Telemetry Project:

http://www.massaudubon.org/Birds_and_Birding/snowyowl/index.php

http://www.massaudubon.org/Birds_and_Birding/snowyowl/maps.php

"As part of his research, he (Norman Smith) has worked with Logan Airport, observing and capturing Snowy Owls that could potentially pose a danger to air traffic, banding them and releasing them further along their migration path.* 
Unfortunately, 
Snowy Owls love airports."

Polar Bear Effigies painting floating in Disko Bay

Here is my 5 ft by 8 ft watercolor of polar bears, photographed by Milbry Polk, floating in the 1000 year old glacial waters near the Illiusat Glacier in Greenland, August, 2012!  I am told that Greenlander hunter who helped with placing and removing it from the waters was moved to tears, and that he endeavored to keep it for himself afterwards.

My Polar Bear Paintings set sail from Aasiaat today!

This is a portion of a watermedia painting sent along with the Explorer's Club Flag to Assiaat, Greenland this week.  

I have made a simple representational watercolor & acrylic painting on a roughly 4 ft by 9 ft watercolor paper (vertical) of 3 polar bears swimming. 

They will be dropped into the seas of the Davis Strait and filmed as they sink below the waters to symbolize the peril that polar bears face.  

Polar bears use ice floes as a station for hunting seals and belugas; as the ice floes disappear from climate change, polar must seek ice floes further and further away from their hunting grounds.  Many drown while finding these-- the distances are becoming too too far.

I am offering painted "effigies" or polar bears sinking below arctic waters to substitute & "protect" actual polar bears who are in danger of drowning due to climate change's reduced ice floe coverage. 

Today the Wanderbird sets sail from Aasiaat, Greenland in Disko Bay with my polar bear painting and several other projects of mine.  She is on a mission to follow the 1869 expedition of Romantic painter/explorer William Bradford as he recorded Greenland's icebergs and glaciers for artistic use.  See more about his voyage at the Clark Art Museum's online show http://www.clarkart.edu/exhibitions/bradford/content.cfm?id=1

and about our expedition at

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/701351414/chasing-the-light?ref=live

Summer Solstice 2012

This drawing/watercolor is leaving with my friend Alejandra on Sunday, bound for the northernmost research station of Greenland.  She is gathering cores of the ice sheet for her Ph.D.-- and dousing my watercolor in glacial waters!  

The drawing/watercolor uses water-soluble inks & paints, along with acrylic grounds on watercolor paper.  The image was principally drawn and applied using curly willow branches as brushes/palette knife— a cousin to the arctic willows of Greenland, which hug the soil.   I have added extra surface and texture to the paper using acrylic modeling and fiber pastes.  The clumpy areas are meant to simulate the lichen areas attached to the stick I was using as a model.  Embedded and dried into these areas are extra daubs of watercolor paints-— principally greens and blues.

Glacial waters will activate the reservoir of paints, thereby "greening" the page.

There are no trees in Greenland, as the permafrost makes deep root growth impossible.  But with increasing global warming, we could see Greenland become full of meadowlands, bushes, and ultimately trees.  Ale and I am bringing some of the first "trees" to the northern parts of the ice cap-- even if they are only virtual and artistic.

The drawing for Greenland was made today, June 21,  on the Summer Solstice, in Boston, at 97 degrees Farenheit and at 42.3583 degrees north and 71.0603 degrees west. Photographed by me on my roof. Its next stop?-- well beyond the Arctic Circle!

Secret Life of Glaciers

While cruising about on NPR's Science Friday, I found this video "Secret Life of Ice" by Edward Aites, a Seattle photographer
NPR Science Friday's "The Secret Life of Ice"
This beautiful work is done with time lapse photography using a microscope with a  polarized filter on backyard ice. Imagine "flying" about inside of Greenland's ice cap,  on a continental scale, up to almost 2 miles thick!  More NPR about the melting ice cap-- including some good news can be found at
http://www.npr.org/2012/05/03/151790470/greenlands-ice-melting-slower-than-expected

Titan Arum blooming at Franklin Park Zoo!

As seen in the Boston Globe on 6-20-12.  Photo by David L Ryan.  
A flower that smells like carrion--its pollinated by flies-- and grows up to 10 ft. tall.  Currently blooming (late June 2012) at Franklin Park Zoo in Boston! See the fantastic article about them at U of Wisconsin's website below, which includes information about their thermal photos of the inflourescence (flower) which I show here.
    Scientific name: Amorphophallus titanum

http://www.news.wisc.edu/titanarum/facts.html

Arctic Terns -- the Ultimate Wanderbirds

The amazing Wanderbird Cruises sent me a brochure about their boat, which will be the vessel carrying the artists of the Capture the Light Art Expedition. 

Wanderbird Cruises

Their beautiful ketch, out of Belfast, Maine,  is North Sea fishing trawler converted to a very comfortable long range expedition trawler. She is the WANDERBIRD, 
a combination of several elements: a traditional ketch auxiliary sailing rig, beautiful wood interiors with classic yacht design from the 1940s, a charming and cosy galley, the strength and integrity of a working fishing vessel, a fuel range of 6000 nautical miles, and capabilities for offshore adventure.


My vote for the wander-bird mascot has got to be the Arctic Tern, which winters in Antarctica and summers in the Arctic... My watercolor tribute is here.

Transit of Venus, Boston

Overcast skies all day gave me plenty of practice to me a "virtual artist"-- a misnomer, perhaps.  Let's say a "Artist Remote"-- as all of the global admirers of celestial events are!  Just as the last 45 minutes of sunset where passing here in Boston, the skies cleared to ribbons of sun and cloud (see watercolor post of clouds...) and it looked like we had a chance.  My husband and I threw ourselves into our car, welding goggles in hand, and dashed 8 miles west to Danehy Park in Cambridge, MA.  
Alas-- all we saw was the Transit of Soccer Ball.....

Greenland Expedition by Proxy

I am now a Virtual Artist on an expedition to Greenland!  
I will be joining the 

Chasing the Light Expedition 

using my artworks to take my thoughts and artworks into lands which I am not able to travel and stand upon personally.

I have been invited to join a group of artists/photographers traveling along the western coast of Greenland this August.  They are collecting images and documenting changes while traveling along the route of the Hudson River School painter William Bradford.  The work will be exhibited at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in 2013.  

I will be preparing journals and artworks to be used in documentation and art installations, which will then be carried by the expedition leader, and incorporated voluntarily into the activities of the artists, thereby creating a virtual collaboration!  
I am anticipating that my work will active during the voyage, return with the expedition, and then be included in the New Bedford museum show, serving both as education and inspiration artworks.  

First on the list is some aspect of historical discovery journaling--- see my last 2 posts!

I will be sharing more info about how to become  a Virtual Artist in Greenland in my blogs and on my Facebook page as the summer progresses— but for now, you are the first to know!

Here is the wonderful link to the Kickstarter fundraising site for the expedition— it explains why, who, and where in a short video.  It also includes some amazing art and scenery, so enjoy!  Let me know if you would enjoy other updates and information about our expedition and Greenland-- one of the world's most remote and beautiful places you and I may never "see"…..

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/701351414/chasing-the-light?ref=live

Cloud Diary: Twice Mixed Clouds & Sun

Created as an example of painting clouds in watercolor.  Note the center gutter, a visual artifact left over from doing 2 demonstrations side-by-side.  I like the discontinuity..... In the demonstration, I used blue painter's tape to divide a page of watercolor paper in half.  During the second demo, I removed the paint and painted from the first into the second at the top center.  Perhaps this suggests how time flows from moment to moment?

Voyaging Journals

2 journals to compare:  the first, from the New Bedford Whaling Museum, a whaling ship's journal showing entries about when and how whales were taken; the second,  my own journal entry from a visit to Tasmania.  Mine uses 2 references-- a quote from the Maritime Museum of Tasmania in Hobart and the images of Southern Ocean fishes documented by John Gould.

Between The Folds Official Trailer

Scientific uses of origami folding are becoming more and more critical to envisioning solutions and new products ranging from aerospace to cancer cures involving protein folding.  This jewel of a film takes you from master Akira Yoshizawa  (celebrated in Google's Doodle today) to MIT's modern mathematical genius Eric Demaine.  Also view Professor Demaine's website at
http://erikdemaine.org/

Come Draw & Paint Live Owls with Me!

Announcing my 
Owls in the Family 
Drawing/painting workshop at 
The Decordova 
Sculpture Park & Museum 
on Saturday, April 21
 from 1-3 pm 
$40 members
$50 non-m
With the Traveling Programs at the Boston Museum of Science, I will be presenting 2 screech owls for drawing and painting.  My lessons will include 
• how to observe a live animal in order to draw
• wing structures 
• coping with  cryptic coloration
• natural vs expressive color and much more!


Here's the link for more info and to sign up-- see you there!


http://www.decordova.org/school/classes/featured-artist-series-owls-family-spring

5,500 year old moss in NYTimes blog

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/01/dispatch-from-antarctica-elephant-island/

Tegu at the Morgan Library NYC

In the Company of Animals:  Art, Literature and Music at the Morgan 
March 2- May 20, 2012


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/03/03/arts/artsspecial/20120303animals.html
and the Morgan's Online Show Gallery at
http://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/exhibitionList.asp?page=1&exhibition=animals

Wonderfully, the exhibit includes a print of Maria Sibylla Merian's Tegu.  At left is my student RB's sketch of a tegu, made in a life drawing observation of the reptile at Tufts University through the Experimental College. Merian had a tendency to embellish and stylize her subjects into imaginative designs-- after 2 hours of observation, it was quite clear to us that the circular shape created in Merian's tegu was unlikely in the real creature-- both in its anatomical and movements characteristics.  RB's bulbous tale suggests the same....


Read more about Maria Sybilla Merian's extraordinary exploits as a scientific illustrator and explorer in the 17th century Surinam in Sir Attenborough's book, Amazing Rare Things (Kales Press 2009 ISBN 978-0-9798456-2-8) and The Great Naturalists, edited by Robert Huxley (2007 Thames & Hudson publisher, ISBN 978-0-500-25139-3).  


To quote Walter Lack's essay about Merian from Huxley's collection, she may be "best characterized as an amalgam of natural history illustrator, naturalist, and... entrepeneur.  She left behind an extensive record of plants and animals, notably insects....(S)he was a female...illustrator and naturalist...intruding into a traditionally male-dominated sphere; secondly, she developed a lasting interest in metamorphosis...making her an early entomologist; and thirdly, by spending several months in Surinam she became a pioneer student of tropical fauna and flora."  Imagine the discomfort of  the ankle length, multiple skirts in a dugout along the coastal estuaries & jungles!  An interesting image could be wrestled from this today-- a woman scientist in long garments studying wild reptiles & caterpillars in the city.....

Decordova Art Workshop Saturday morning May 12 from 10-12

I am offering an adult workshop at the Decordova Sculpture Park & Museum this May--

please come!

Art, Science, and Nature: Mushrooms and Microbes

Explore science-based artworks using the mysterious world of New England wild and culinary mushrooms. Instructor will guide students to find their way through the wonderland of shapes as they explore scraping techniques in watercolor and scratchboard. Students will: produce a mushroom spore print to create an artwork that shows the genomes of soil creatures; explore soil science and geology as they make their own paints from deCordova mud; sample unusual paints ground from turquoise and lapis lazuli (provided by the instructor); and create a drawing of tree roots intersecting deCordova’s sculptures, threading it through with real mycorrhizal fungal “branches”.

Leap Day Sketchbook-- Chameleon

69 Degrees South celebrates Shackleton, evokes Climate Change

Valentine's Day's inspiration-- Mexican artist Daniel Orozco

 

Rhinoceros via Airlift and Voyage

This image is a screen grab showing a black rhinoceros in the sky-- a haunting, modern image that is strangely evocative of Albrecht Durer's woodcut of an Indian rhinoceros. This rhinoceros is traveling to a new & safer home, courtesy of a collaboration of groups including WWF and the South African National Parks.  Durer's rhinoceros depicts an Indian rhinoceros which traveled safely from Goa, India to King Manuel I of  Portugal via Cape Hope in 1515-- only to be drowned at sea in 1516 on its way to Rome.  Its body recovered and taxidermied, the rhino continued its celebrity after finishing its journey to Rome.

Both are  passengers of enforced travel, created by the passions of mankind.  One chained to a wooden ship, the other hangs from helicopter. Both environments -- sea and sky-- are profound contrasts to the natural environment of the animal(s).  

In these journeys, the imagination sails--Where does the hoof gain purchase?  What does the horn impale? Blindfolded, shackeled and bound, the rhinos float in movement of impossible gracefulness to a bewildering future....

Does the transport signal the start of new life that affords only an enforced but adapted comfort? Nothing suggests this more completely to me than the amazing rhinoceros chair created by Maximo Riera (which I first saw at toonboom.com).

See more about Durer's rhino-- an image invented from only verbal descriptions--and the animal's extraordinary influence in the history of art  at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dürer%27s_Rhinoceros

See more about the incredible rhino lift in the March 2012 issue of National Geographic Magazine and msnbc's photo gallery at

Rhinos get upside-down helicopter ride to safety