- “Impermafrost” by Gail Priday immediately caught my eye. The colors are bright and the composition is fluid, which makes it incredibly appealing. I really like the name as well, it gives a very clear idea of what the whole composition represents in just one word. The concept ties together with the theme of the exhibition, “times of change”, by depicting the melting of permafrost and the flow of carbon that results from it and microbial respiration. In contrast with the background, the microbes are made up of a variety of different colors which makes them seem more alive.
- “Deceptive Beauty” by Ree Nancarrow is colorful and vibrant. The pictures remind me of familiar scenes, like the black spruce forest landscape, the lakes, the bubbles trapped under the ice, and the fires. But the piece also expresses the scientific concept of greenhouse gases and their influence on climate change. The CO2 and methane created by respiration and melting of permafrost help in causing global warming (which is shown in the fire panel). Overall, the piece gives a haunting feeling of beauty that is very intense, but also quickly disappearing, and hiding some terrible secret within itself. The artist did an amazing job in expressing the science behind the painting.
- “Print-making on carved wood” by Sara Tabbert first interested me because I thought the name sounded familiar; now I know she is the one that created the artwork in the Murie lobby. I always thought that piece was really beautiful, and this one was as well. The topic relates to our class since it represents Zika viruses. We had a class about viruses this semester, and an additional lecture as well, by Dan Stinchcomb, about the vaccine progression for deadly viruses.
- If I had been an artist in this exhibit, I might have worked on microbial predation. There is something fascinating about the food chain on a microscopic scale; the idea of microbe eating microbe eating microbe gives me a sense of the primordial and a connection to the eukaryotic world as well.