Nature is a persistent muse for artists, as people from Aristotle to Ansel Adams have averred, and Diana Arcadipone has lived that reality most of her life.
“Nature has always been the nucleus of inspiration,” says Arcadipone, associate professor in our College of Art and Design, and former dean of Extended Programs. “Natural materials, raw materials, mixing media, folk art and traditional crafts; making paper, making baskets, textiles, etc.”
Arcadipone lately has found inspiration for her large-scale paintings and soundscapes in the footage she captures on a wildlife camera outside her studio and residence in Otisfield, Maine.
Though for years she managed the three-hour commute between southwestern Maine and Cambridge, our remote-learning model has afforded her more time in her studio, which is the culmination of a dream from childhood.
“When I was very young, I took over an abandoned out building near my house and used it as a studio,” she recollects. However, it was vandalized, destroyed and burned to the ground. “That was traumatic so, since the age of 10 or 12, I’ve had a goal to have a studio in the woods,” she says. “I eventually built one here in Maine and am now immersed in the woods near a lake.
“You might think of the woods as a quiet place, but the sounds can be intense. In winter, you can hear the ice on the lake moving and groaning. The bard owls become very active this time of year (February) as they mate, and they are territorial and very vocal.”
She came to the cam, she indicates, once COVID-19 made it less feasible to travel extensively to her subjects.
“Traveling has consistently been a huge source of inspiration to me,” Arcadipone says. “I’ve kayaked to see grizzly bears in their natural habitat in Canada, paddled to see whales in the Bay of Fundy, hiked in Rwanda to see gorillas in the mountains and recently traveled to Peru to the Amazon rain forest.”
Yet Arcadipone is now able to apply that same spirit of adventurous inquiry to her own backyard, thanks to her wildlife camera, as well as the help of a recently awarded Faculty Development Grant from the university.
“I wanted to capture every species that is in our area: deer, fox, moose, porcupine, wild turkeys, coyotes, fisher cats,” she says, adding that she hasn’t yet seen a bear in the vicinity, though they are around.
Professor Arcadipone recently discussed with us the nature of her environment-inspired work.
Q: What first possessed you to turn wildlife camera footage into large-scale art and soundscapes?
A: I always shot video and stills with my phone, but in the Amazon, I started recording sounds of the background din of insects along with the howler monkeys as a mnemonic device, so that once I return to my studio, I had plenty of resource material to work with. I’ve wanted to capture these experiences, engaging as many of the senses as possible, and hopefully give others the opportunity to do the same.
Q: What inspired you to embark on this direction?
A: I wanted to be outdoors in all weather conditions as an amateur athlete. Climbing, surfing, paddling, skiing, hiking, running, etc. Later, I would have long conversations with my sister, who lives in Michigan, about various wildlife sightings. She is an amazing storyteller, so I started incorporating her stories into my paintings through pen and ink. Or I would do research and incorporate that text about the habitat of any particular animal into the paintings.
Q: What sort of reaction do you hope this work elicits?
A: I want to convey feeling of peace, calm, an awareness of our natural environment and wildlife habitats and how as humans we are adversely affecting the health of our planet. If we keep going along the same path, the ability to see many animals in their natural habitat will become rare. At best, I’d like the viewer to be inspired to help protect our planet even in small ways.
We teach art students to “observe.” So, it’s always good to be reminded to slow down and watch the life around us. These simple observances help to maintain an emotional balance.
Q: What is the best way to exhibit your work?
A: I’m most familiar with a gallery setting, and I would like to find more opportunities to install the paintings with soundscapes. Online galleries and social media are possibilities, if I can easily incorporate soundscapes and images, perhaps collaborating with a sound engineer. I actually collaborated with a musician very early on to make a spectrogram of an owl’s voice, and then I transferred that image to the artwork through embroidery.
