For millions of year, the animals on the Galapagos have gotten along really well. No preditors. Amazing. That has made me curious about other animals - even those that I live with (dogs and parrots). This article will tell you that there is a lot more going on in an animal’s brain than you might think. So - I study the dog to help understand the giant tortoise.
September 24, 2009, 7:59am Comments
People leave marks. Put a person in a place for a while and they start “marking” it up. Some times in utilitarian ways, like creating a fire and ringing it with rocks. Sometimes aesthetically; a blue tent or flocked wall papers. But where ever people go - even in the most rustic environment - they mark their territory. And those marks become symbols of their existence.
American Indians do an amazing job with this. Rich color and design along with distinctive symbols and images all come together in a clear visual language so that tribe can be distinguished from tribe.
In the Galapagos, that historical marking from humans is missing. So as I think about painting a meaningful series I know I have to look deeper than ever before. Hell, I paint cities. I know the symbols and I know my country. I can find the syncopated rhythm of Philly in the smear of neon and the play of shadows on a canvas. I can tell the difference between San Francisco and Chicago and New Jersey in the markings of the people. Galapagos is different. The visual language emerges slowly for me. I’m guessing it has taken shape over centuries. Where is it? How will I find it?
Darwin’s “13 finches” are part of that language. As a finch adapted to the different foods available on the different islands of the Galapagos, their beaks changed shape. Darwin identified 13 different adaptations. On islands where the food source was primarily insects, beaks elongated so the birds could access bugs in their hiding places. On islands full of nuts and berries, shorter stronger beaks adapted. A bird’s gotta eat. When they did, that gene pools flourished and produced the best physical attributes for survival. It’s a divine and brilliant plan.
“A bird’s gotta eat. When they did, that gene pools flourished and produced the best physical attributes for survival. It’s a divine and brilliant plan.”
As I anticipate emersion into the islands I wonder what visual language will become evident? And I wonder if it will be enough to fuel the paintings?
Painting is not enough, but it’s what I know how to do.
There’s another force at work though and it’s about “Why”. Why paint? I want to paint the Galapagos in a poignant and arresting way. Already, I have a feeling of anxiety around the silent suffering of the animals there, hoping I am good enough to capture it all. The place was so pristine for so long.
Over the last 400 years hundreds of thousands of whales were taken from the waters here. As many of the great tortoises were taken, and stored “alive” in the holds of ships (in a remarkable display of rationalized cruelty) without food and water till it was their turn to be soup. As the population of the islands increased (over 25,000 now) the filth that seems only to come with humans is showing up on the islands. There’s a garbage dump. Seal pups have been slaughtered there by vandals, their bodies left to rot on the beaches. And there is “road kill”. Because the birds have no natural predators they are not afraid of cars and trucks and are routinely run down on the roads of the Galapagos. With the increasing native population non-native animals have been introduced to the islands. Dogs, cats, goats, chickens. Some have gone ferrel and have become predators in the landscape. They have introduced new types of bacteria. Everything has changed in a very short amount of time.
The Ecuadorian government has allocated 97% of the land as a Natural Park - but humans can do horrible things in 3% and it affects the entire island. Tourism has also multiplied. Over 120,000 tourists are expected this year. I am one of the “lucky” ones. And however my visit contributes to the further degradation of the islands, I want to try to give back in part with these paintings. Soon, I hope, Ecuador will stop all tourism so we can protect what’s left of this place. Galapagos is a badge of shame for us. Its proof of how we wreck our world. Its not about animal activism for me. Its about our dignity as human beings. We have to reach to the highest place in ourselves to fix this. Greed and politics have to go on the back burner. If we could do it in this little place, maybe we could do it on a larger scale.
And somewhere in all that, there is a visual language for me.
September 17, 2009, 10:03am Comments
Planning to Paint the Islands
The anticipation is starting it’s upward climb to a state of mind that I expect will be euphoric. My 10 days in Galapagos promise to be some of the most exciting of my life. I’ve hitch hiked through Europe, illustrated a book for Little Brown on Plastic Surgery, sang with a Gospel Chorus in Boston, been a robot on a kid’s TV show - and Galapagos will soon join the ranks of “highest highs” in my life. To commemorate it, I am working to develop a series of paintings. Right now, I don’t know what they will be - but I expect the series to come to life as I learn more about the islands.
How do I create meaning? I am not about painting a bunch of sea lions and turtles. The point is bigger here than the animals themselves. I am asking myself lots of questions about the design of this series and what best will have meaning for the larger world. My intent is to have a one woman show about the Galapagos - showing at least 10 pieces that capture my adventure and tell the story of this sadly degrading private world.
So? How do you plan that show?
I’m finding that part really fascinating because so far, it’s a puzzle. I saw a show by a young photographer once, who contrasted New York and London in his photography. “New York”, he said, “is all about Black and Yellow. London is all about Red and Black.”
He was able to distill that out of his personal experiences in both cities and I expect at some level the Galapagos will leave me with some indelible impression - something that will start the honest part of the work.
But what’s really a challenge is to somehow communicate Galapagos itself. There is a cultural imprint to most places I have been - meaning that people have already left their mark. In New York, the black, wet streets full of yellow cabs become a symbol. But that stuff is “people tracks”. Where people go, they leave rich symbols. On Galapagos, the symbols are biodegradable and animal created. Tourists leave symbols. There are fences and walkways to keep them from ruining environments. That language is not my native one. I am a city girl. There are no native tribes with amulets, scarabs or woven cloth. There’s no alphabet. There’s no sign post. So over the next 6 months I am committed to learning the language of the animals to give meaning to my paintings. I’m going to learn to listen harder. It may be that the signature symbols of these islands are best painted in movements not colors - or borrowed icons that can inherit new interpretations. I don’t know yet.
Last night I read about the lava flows on the islands. There are two distinct types: aa and rope lava. Somehow I think there are symbols for me inside this bit of information.
It makes me wonder which type the animals are most afraid of? Galapagos is a place where you ask the question, ”If a tree falls on Galapagos, does anyone hear it?”.
September 16, 2009, 8:14pm Comments
It’s an expensive trip. When all is said and done it takes a lot of money to get two human beings to these little specs in the Pacific … but the Galapagos Islands have been on my bucket list for decades and the value is there in my heart and my head. I won’t regret this, even if it doesn’t match the fantasy.
The Islands magical quality is generated by their largely unspoiled nature. Let’s just say that they haven’t been squarely in the crosshairs of civilization and so they have fared well. They have been a backdrop for pirates, kings, religious protest, classic novels, and more. But the thing that really gets me is the knowledge that on these Islands you can see things that may appear no where else in the Universe. I’m going to see the inflated breasts of the frigate birds and the blue feet of the boobies. I’m going to walk in the footsteps of giant lizards, swim with seal pups, and enter this experience as fully as possible. When I’m done, I will belong to an elite group of very fortunate folks who can say they were there before it was destroyed. I’m really lucky, and I know it.
Because of poaching, vandalism, disease, and the ever encroaching human condition the Galapagos may soon be closed for expeditions like this one. Twenty years ago even, was too late to see it in its truly pristine state. We humans are great destroyers - even as we are great creators. The Galapagos is suffering from our destructive ways. How do these two opposing traits live inside us? I am going to attempt to pay back some of the destructive debt of us by painting what I see, with the hopes that “creation” will counterbalance “destruction” in some small way. I have no idea what that means yet, but it’s been stewing in the back of my mind for a very long time.
Galapomusing.
September 11, 2009, 8:46pm Comments
http://www.hofstra.edu/Academics/Colleges/HCLAS/galapagos/galapagos_journal.html
The link above will take you to a journal of students who went to the Galapagos. I read this in complete daydream mode, and can’t wait to have my own adventure.
A quote from Eric Horn:
“Today we hiked up Mount Cotopaxi, a dormant stratovolcano in the Andes Mountain Range. The Andes are called “volcano alley” for good reason. Little did we know, yesterday three hours from Quito another volcano was erupting! Cotopaxi is the largest volcano in the entire Andes, and we ended up hiking all the way up to 14,600 feet! The air became very thin and I had trouble breathing. Also, since your blood thickens with increasing altitude I started getting a wicked headache. Thankfully Dr. Bennington had brought an ample supply of Aspirin which actually contains a blood thinning agent. It made the headache disappear, and the hike was bearable (though thoroughly exhausting). The people who live around the base of Cotopaxi raise cattle and horses, but a large number of horses were released long ago, and now around the hills at the base of the mountain you can see wild horses grazing. They look very thin and areńt very strong, but they can run like the wind, or so said our guide Alfredo.”
I can’t wait.
September 11, 2009, 12:01pm Comments
