When I completed my MFA-IA thesis I had this grand plan to take the idea of art as a tool for natural science research and to do project dubbed “A Swampland Herbal”. The project, however, had to be put on hold due to one particular missing piece. The missing piece was a serious technical flaw in my training as an artist. I could no more do a botanical illustration than I could fly to the moon. The opportunity arose to study scientific illustration and these are some of the pieces that came out of that study. With still much to learn, I think I might have found my artistic tribe! I tell people that if I’d known I could have been a scientific illustrator and ski instructor when I grew up, it would have been a very different world!!!

I had the luxury of spending many hours observing two places dear to my heart. The first was First Encounter Beach in Eastham, MA, for much of 2014. The second a beaver swamp near my home. from January 1, 2015- December 14, 2015, as part of my MFA-IA thesis. It was here that I learned much about what has turned into my notion that seeing with my hands as naturalist artist becomes a way to give agency to a landscape in a way that makes learning about what it’s “tales” are accessible. Thich Nhat Hanh says that the exploration of the scientist and exploration of the meditator are one in the same as they are searches for the truth. For me this form of art has always been a meditation and search for a visual truth. The questions raised as silence replaces a monkey mind become trail markers for research.

I spent the winter of 2019 learning about the anatomy and physiology of larval and adult oysters as part of an illustration project for Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group. They wanted accurate but beautiful graphite illustrations to be used for both educational and development purposes. As many know, I am mostly a place based naturalist artist with a strong bend towards the botanical (though between bees, monarch butterflies and now oysters, you would never know that was the case!). This oyster thing was… well, if I can draw rocky shorelines, sure I can draw oyster developmental phases and shells!

The project ended up taking me not only to the Vineyard regularly (lucky me!) but to Aquaculture Research Corporation in Dennis, MA, as well as regular contact with The Marine Biology Lab at Woods Hole, University of Rhode Island and Rutgers University. Adult oysters were really pretty easy to get information on, but the veligers… not so much. Everybody knew what a 9-12 day old veliger did, what it looked like but not exactly what part was what and what each part did! It ended up being about doing map like studies to the best of my understanding, having them assessed and then going back to remap. What you see is an oyster veliger right about the time that it will settle itself on whatever comes its way to land on and growing from there.

As to skills learned, the most unexpected one was taking photographs and videos of veligers through a microscope lens with my iPhone!

There is too much to put in about shellfish aquaculture, but it is well worth seeing the process in action. As to velligers, they are pretty cute! Check ‘em out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8-6yNwoWQI

Prints of these are available through Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group. tAsk for Amandine or Emma: http://www.mvshellfishgroup.org/

In my mind, dynamic energy exists in everything, including rocks and sand, the structural mainstays of both the Berkshires and Cape Cod. For me the art and illustration work is about capturing the movement of shape as it reflects the dynamic energy that is required for life.

Much of my journal/ sketchbook/ study work is intended for oil or watercolor paintings, with the occasional step into pastels. My camera and iPhone are important parts of the journal process used for detail and shape verification. A stupidly slow producer in all media, oil painting is the slowest, partially due to studio circumstances given that it has to be warm enough for me to work outdoors. I am currently working on four paintings related to fallen trees at the East Hill Rd. Beaver Swamp. Stay tuned!

The process of puzzling things together is what studies are about. They are where details start to make sense and often have a life to them that gets lost in final projects. They are also usually done with crummy media, so they aren’t really “show” quality. It doesn’t take away from their importance in the process and I do a lot of them. I suspect that is the story of many artists who have day jobs!

Well, some tools of the trade…