The Farm (2000). 96” x 120”. Oil & acrylic on wood panel.
Image courtesy of the artist and Sperone Westwater.
was asked to do a series of images that would
describe several experiments on the effects of
deforestation. The images were going to be
reproduced in their magazine, and I ended
up making a very large painting that was reproduced on the cover. This set the table for
all sorts of fascinating projects: an enormous
painting commission for the Department of
Fisheries at the University of Washington,
Seattle for their new building in 1998—a
book about Tasmania, paintings about the local ecosystems for the US Embassies of both
Madagascar and Baghdad—a trip to Antarctica—and the most ambitious of all, a project
I have been researching for almost a year
about the history and future of Great Lakes.
I haven’t even started painting yet!
SciArt in America December 2014
JB: As an artist who creates work about a variety of scientific topics, how would you describe the
value in commencing science via visual art?
AR: I think science has the most exciting
and interesting content, and it’s a way to
think about and make work about literally
anything from history. There are so many
fascinating stories to be told, and it’s also our
story of the history of what it is to be human
and our animal ancestry. Science is also our
only hope for the future. As we put more and
more pressure on our very limited resources,
the only way we might be able to make the
challenging adjustment of our growing population as it puts more and more pressure on
the planet.
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