The Art, Nature, Culture Class at Antioch New England transformed the old bookstore space into an art gallery displaying the finest pieces of studio work they created this semester. The opening was Thursday December 2 and was open through Friday.

The students who created this show have been studying the field of Environmental Art and Environmental Design. Environmental artists express innovative views of the relationships between humans and the rest of nature. Their approaches range from the land art of Robert Smithson to the ephemeral art of Andy Goldsworthy. A good source of information on Environmental Art is to be found at Greenmuseum.org. Environmental Designers explore how to create a more sustainable human-built environment.

Antioch New England artists have chosen themes related to their current research concentrations, and their artwork expresses concepts they’ve learned in their science and other classes. Our artists have shared interests in the perceptions of other animals, place, intergenerational relations, trees, found materials, and color theory. The Antioch artists include:

Rebecca Clark. Rebecca is a conservation biologist interested in how art helps us explore the perceptions and experiences of other creatures. She says” “Have you ever tried to imagine the world from the perspective of a bee?” Her art work is inspired by the artist Lynn Hull, who creates environmental art that other species would be attracted to, as well as scientists like Niko Tinbergen, Karl von Firsch, and Temple Gradin. Rebecca created a set of experiments to see and imagine the worlds of other animals through the mediums of painting, sketching, and sculpture . For example, Happy as a Clam draws on her field research on Cape Cod and explores the ideal environment for growing conditions of soft-shelled clams.

Emily Davis. Emily is addressing several themes: placelessness, human restoration, and a sense of belonging. She asks, “Where do you belong?” and challenges people to find what they respect about the places where they belong. Emily works with found material, moving beyond the values of “reuse, reduce, and recycle” to “research, reduce, resist, recognize, revel, read, reuse, repair, refurbish, refine, recover, reclaim, redistribute, review, recycle, recharge, renew, retrofit, and remember.” She is creating beautiful envelopes and glassware from recycled materials. She is also researching her new home of Keene, and is inspired to design a deck of cards that will introduce people to the Keene community.

Alexis Doshas. Alexis is an accomplished photographer, but in this class she took the challenge to break out the two dimensional framework into three dimensional, sculptural work. Alexis has created poignant sculptures that she says, “include elements of irony, whimsy, bittersweet, and comedy, which I use to disarm the viewer.” Her work examines the interactions between natural design and human concepts and is inspired by the writer Wendell Berry.

Stephanie Goggin. Stephanie is interested in the phenomenological experiences of infants and their experience of water animals. Stephanie works at the intersection of art and craft. She has created a series of useful textile crafts for babies. They revolve around the themes of sea turtles and water, and express the textures and colors of water. She says, “Art can be beautiful, dangerous, uplifting or dreary….For me, art is a way to bring beauty to the practical.”

Andrew Hays. Andrew is interested in systems theory, and is focusing on the circulatory system. He’s exploring recurrent patterns that show up in many different natural forms, and contrasting the circulatory system in the human body, trees and the water cycle. Andrew is also interested in color theory, especially how black influences the color of different media.

Michael Metivier. Michael has been exploring what it means to come to terms with revelations in one’s own history. He has written a series of poems on “witness trees,” a concept he embraced in his landscape class. What does it mean to witness, to be silent and “pass,” to come to know one’s ancestors in an unexpected way, and to speak the truth?  [Read his poem "Atavus" on the Whole Terrain blog home page.]

Heather Ruggiero. Heather is reacquainting herself with her ancestral home in Vermont. She shares with the Impressionists the desire to capture subtle changes in the colors and textures of forests. An accomplished watercolor painter, Heather has been experimenting with watercolor collage to capture moments in the Northern Forest. She is experimenting with the way watercolors interact with highly textured paper.

Joshua Shawver. Josh comes with experience in costume design, and has been playing with the qualities of tree bark. He draws upon metaphors between tree bark and fabric, and recreates the functional qualities of birch bark with fabric textures. Josh’s whimsical pieces mimic objects in nature, what he calls, “an arborial connection of fabric and nature.”

Anne Stilts. Annie inherited tubes of acrylic paint from her grandmother and was inspired to create  knife and palate pieces on tile. Her highly textured studies express her concerns about the beauty of found materials that we are so quick to toss. Annie’s highly textured, richly colored expressive experiments have brought Annie to a place where she feels she is creating authentic art.

Alesia Maltz, Ph.D., is a core faculty member of the Environmental Studies Doctoral Program at Antioch University New England. She has served for a number of years as a member of Whole Terrain’s Editorial Board.

Jan Reynolds’ photographs and stories whisk you around the world in 80 seconds, but they always bring home a message of sustainability and cultural appreciation.

Her adventures include the first circumnavigation of Mount Everest, a solo crossing of the Himalaya, and a camel crossing of the Sahara desert. Her photographs and articles have been highlighted in National Geographic, The New York Times and Outside magazine. She is also the author of Celebrate! Connections Among Cultures, Cycle of Rice, Cycle of Life: A Story of Sustainable Farming and the Vanishing Cultures series.

Her books are geared towards children, but older audiences will also appreciate the beautiful photos and information on indigenous cultures. In all of her books, she stresses the similarities between cultures rather than differences.

“If children spend time dividing us into categories of us and them, that division means there are differences that create a gap. When you see us as the same family, the tendency is to treat everyone better. We’re one human family,” said Reynolds.

In the teaching materials that accompany her Vanishing Culture series, Reynolds asks, “What do we lose if we lose a vanishing culture?”. When asked to answer that question, Reynolds said, “It’s like losing some of the fingers and toes of the human family. We lose wonderful traditions and languages, and ways of cooking food, and points of view. We lose a part of human history, part of who we are.”

Reynolds’ new series of work will focus on how climate change is impacting indigenous peoples’ lives and traditions. One example is the Maasai in the semi-arid regions of Kenya and Tanzania. Reynolds explained that though traditionally nomadic, the Maasai are facing environmental changes that cause them to become more sedentary—a lifestyle that could actually further devastate the desert environment.

When Reynolds writes for or speaks to children, she encourages them to care for their own environment. “I try to show the connection humans have to the natural world. I show that we can’t function without our natural world. I keep it light and easy, but I try to draw those connections,” she said. Indigenous people live more closely with that connection, she explained.

She introduces children to sustainable agriculture through Cycle of Rife, Cycle of Life. “Sustainability is a big word for little kids,” said Reynolds. So instead of speaking abstractly about sustainability, she demonstrates the concept by describing rice farming in Bali. “The key element is the ducks,” she said. Bali farmers free their duck flocks into their rice fields. The ducks eat the pests and fertilize the soil. “It helps [children] understand that everything grows in cycles,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds endeavors to live with indigenous people rather than merely photograph them. “I’m there long enough so that I’m part of the program,” she said. She doesn’t bring her camera out at the beginning. “We become friends and buddies first,” she explained.

She also tries not to be too much of an influence herself. “I try to be a fly on the wall. I don’t bring them things like an electronic watch. I don’t bring any trash. I research what would be OK gifts,” said Reynolds.

Reynolds brings her books alive through speaking engagements at schools, businesses, conventions, and festivals across the country. She excitedly tells stories and plays music as her beautiful and powerful photographs stream past. There are photos from her high-altitude hot-air balloon trip, photos of the almost-vanished Tuareg camel drivers in their indigo-dyed veils, photos of the yak she drove through a Himalayan mountain pass, and more.

However, her books and presentations aren’t just photo galleries or curiosities. They carry a larger message. In her introduction to Celebrate!, Reynolds says, “Experiencing these connections among celebrations showed me it doesn’t matter which language we sing in or what color our skin is underneath our costumes or clothing. We are much more alike than we are different.”

And in a presentation as part of last month’s Brattleboro Literary Festival in Vermont, Reynolds displayed a series of images of smiling and peaceful-looking mountain people. Afterward, she told children in the audience that they had just been viewing a tribe in Afghanistan. “It’s good not to dislike a whole region because of what you hear on the news,” she told them.

Jan Reynolds is a writer, photographer and adventurer who lives in Stowe, Vermont when she’s not traveling. Her Vanishing Cultures photo-essay series was recognized as Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People and selected for the Kids’ Pick of the List by the American Bookseller’s Association. She holds the world record for women’s high-altitude skiing.

Eiffel by [sic]

I come from a small agricultural town in Northern California where the line between nature and cordoned human life was never strict. Since leaving for college at age 18, I have more or less lived in large cosmopolitan cities: Los Angeles, Madrid, San Francisco, New York City. Now I know the nature of a human soul split between city and country.

The anthropocentric city connects human to human but disengages human from its natural connection. Electric light extends the day; buildings allow only a small degree glimpse at the movement of celestial bodies; our internal clocks are rearranged; a grid is laid over the structure and flow of life. The urban human is essentially unplugged from natural flow; “nature” becomes a life preserver thrown into a sea of concrete.

From this standpoint, “Eiffel” shows respect and astonishment with the feats of human while looking skyward and asking this question of “Where is Nature?” In this case, I believe an exclamation mark is a good addition alongside the question mark.[sic]

artist’s website: www.sic.ph
current project: www.iheart.org
See Eiffel (and other photos) on [sic]‘s Flickr account

[sic] is a conceptual media artist whose works focus on the creation of emotive narrative architectures. His immersive and interactive installations cull influence from a hybrid terrain of theory and culture, informed by the moving image, pop, technology, the public/street, performance and music.

Vallone dei Mulini
photographed by Juan Salmoral

Vallone dei Mulini is an abandoned mill in Sorrento, Italy. The mill used flowing water as a power source to process raw materials for sale and trade. What used to be a bustling hub of human activity is now host to a diverse community of ferns. The dramatic topography provides a mix of moisture and lighting characteristics to accomodate many varieties of vegetation.

Juan Salmoral is a prolific photographer from Mataró, Barcelona, Spain. He is a seasoned traveller with an eye for structural and architectural beauty. More of his wonderful photos can be viewed on his Flickr account.

Juan’s Flickr Account: here

Untitled Puppet by Mark Dannenhauer
(photo courtesy of Nashoba Paddler)

“My work began with puppetry, primarily performance and international tours with the Bread and Puppet Theater. Then, my wife and I did our own tours, mostly within 20 miles of our then-home on scenic Mission Hill in Boston. Then, Jane become a school librarian and I started doing puppet making workshops. Over time, these workshops became more and more about making puppets of local animals. Thinking it might be good to actually know something about animals and habitats, I entered Antioch in 1998. I emerged from the Individualized Program two years later, self-titled degree in Community Landscape Interpretation in hand. So, that’s what I’m doing, Community Landscape Interpretation. I provide the tools and techniques, shape the design parameters, and assist with necessary problem-solving that community members use to create their own interpretation of local landscapes. My principal media are puppetry and photography, to which I’m hoping to add phonography (work with sound).”

- Mark Dannenhauer

Naked Trees by Aviva Cohen

“Last winter I began to photograph deciduous trees on my way to and from my job at New Hampshire Community Technical College. I was fascinated with the various shapes and structures of the trees that were only emphasized by the fact that they were bare of leaves. I would stop by the side of the road and snap them with my digital camera. I teach digital imaging and my favorite software application is Photoshop. I manipulated the images in Photoshop to create this montage. I sought to emphasize the structure of the trees and the way the branches grow out from the trunks, break into smaller branches and are silhouetted against the sky.” – Aviva Cohen

Contact Aviva Cohen – aviva114@comcast.net

Aviva Cohen earned her BFA in art education from the Massachusetts College of Art. She is an alumni of Antioch University of New England, graduating from the Experienced Educators program in 2003. She has taught Art grades 8-12 in Melbourne, Australia and Chelmsford, MA. Currently she is teaching Digital Design and Animation and Fine Arts at New Hampshire Community Technical College at Stratham and Pease. She works in pencil, watercolor, and Photoshop.