Photography, Illustrations at Dorr

Images of the Natural World by Students
Winter Term 2012 - George B. Dorr Museum of Natural History

Opening postponed to Friday, February 3 due to snowstorm last week. Come join us!

Science and art come together at College of the Atlantic's George B. Dorr Museum this winter as two new and original exhibits go on display. The exhibits are products of recent work by COA students. A public opening will be held on Friday, February 3 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.

The first exhibit, Biology through the Lens, features photographs from the multidisciplinary course of the same name. This class melds science and art through an array of projects addressing various biological phenomena. Students learn to pair technical and observational skills with a variety of photographic techniques and creative approaches. Among the artwork on display will be color portraits of fruits, pinhole photographs of island landscapes, and macrophotography photos of animal insulation. Maura Brennan, whose work is part of this exhibit, recalls her experience with the course: "The whole point of the class was to bridge the seeming gap between art and science, to showcase the aesthetic beauty inherent in biological occurrences, to capture the nighttime sky, to reconcile the 'opposite' approaches to appreciation of this fantastic world!"

The second exhibit is appropriately titled "The Faces of Migration: Illustrations of Birds on Great Duck Island." This series of drawings and paintings portray a range of migratory birds observed by students Jordan Chalfant and Anna Stunkel. These local artists came into contact with the birds they illustrated during a recent internship as part of a large-scale with Acadia National Park, University of Maine, the Climate Change Institute, Nature Conservancy, and COA. Chalfant and Stunkel's inspiration comes from a desire to recreate the beauty and complexity of the hundreds of birds ranging from warblers to woodpeckers handled throughout their work.

The opening this January will be a rare chance to see two collections that turn natural history and biological occurrences into visual art. The exhibits will remain on display for the season and can be seen during Dorr Museum Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The museum is located beside the college's main entrance.

For more information on the exhibit opening on Friday, February 3 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at COA's Dorr Museum, contact Stephen Ressel at 207-801-5723 or sjr@coa.edu.