Researcher(s)
- Ava Vitabile, Fine Arts, University of Delaware
Faculty Mentor(s)
- Dave Brinley, Fine Arts, University of Delaware
Abstract
Under our current climate disaster, I felt an urgency to blend my interest in natural science with my artistic background to create wildlife conservation art.
I traveled to the Sierra Nevada to visit Yosemite and Sequoia/King’s Canyon National Parks, and to southern California to explore Joshua Tree National Park. As a part of my exploration, I took reference pictures focusing on human interactions with the parks and the local ecology. I joined rangers’ programs and researched on the National Park Service website to deeply understand the landscape.
After returning home from California, I painted these landscapes through the lens of an Impressionist interested in wildlife conservation. To breathe life into my work, I chose non-mimetic and vibrant colors, and showed visible, sometimes unblended, brushstrokes.
Included in this series are also my edited photographs, which intend to capture the fleetingness of nature and people’s interactions with nature. Additionally, I drew upon the field of scientific illustration in my digital and watercolor paintings which focus on the taxonomic side of my series.
Our culture often places a divide between humans and nature, believing National Parks to be “untouched”, “pure” landscapes. It is my goal to bring awareness to the historic relationship between us and our landscape. In particular, the erasure of Native American interactions with these parks, especially in the West. Overall, I hope to continue this series with the references I’ve gathered so far and in other parks throughout the country.