Artist/Naturalists
Past and Present
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| What is an Artist/Naturalist? |
An Artist/Naturalist is a person whose intelligence and sense of self is embedded in Nature, and who expresses that deep connection through making art.
Any and all arts are open to the Artist/Naturalist. The Artist/Naturalists on Morning Earth pages include poets, painters, sculptors, writers. They include a pioneer entomologist; an ecologist; childrens’ writers, one of whom was also a mycologist; illustrators; interpretive naturalists and residency artists. Some are lively, some are dead but their gifts are quickened each time they are experienced.
The Artist/Naturalist’s connection to Earth is profound. Artist/Naturalists generally identify themselves as one part of Earth, one part of Creation, one member of the Biosphere, one aspect of Gaia.
As you can see from the cave-painting above, Artist/Naturalists go back to human beginnings, for the arts have always been religious in their essence. Praise and celebration of life are root motives for making.
The Artist/Naturalist’s conscious connection to Earth sometimes begins in childhood as a kind of epiphany, but as often is a moment of recognition that a person comes to later.
Both art-making and the natural Earth are central to an Artist/Naturalist. They are the complements of the yin yang that completes the whole.
The urge to celebrate Earth, to praise its wholeness, the beauty and joy Earth provides: these fan the Artist/Naturalist’s fire of making.
