Botanical Illustration and the Prairie: A Tale of Two Sisters

Ratibida pinnata, pen and ink by Linda Forbess

Botanical Illustration and the Prairie: A Tale of Two Sisters – Botanical Illustration Diploma Presentation

Linda Forbess, Schofield, WI and Helen Alexander, Laurence, KS

Webinar – August 3, 6PM-7:30PM MDT

Learn about the collaboration of sisters Linda Forbess (illustrator) and Helen Alexander (ecologist and writer) to produce Tallgrass Prairies in Mid-America: A Guide to Common Plants and Reflections on Prairie Landscapes of the Past, Present, and Future. Botanical illustration requires observational skill, artistic talent, and a willingness to work closely with scientists—and all three were important in this endeavor. In this program you’ll explore the drawings, fieldwork, and review process that celebrates the tallgrass prairie, the book’s inspiration.

Linda Forbess earned her Foundational Certificate in Botanical Art and Illustration from Denver Botanic Gardens in 2015. She plans to complete the Gardens’ Diploma in Botanical Illustration in 2020.

Helen Alexander is an ecology professor at the University of Kansas. She is currently collaborating with Forbess and biologist W. Dean Kettle on a book about environments and environmental history of the central United States.

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Tactile Art: Expanding Access to Information

Summer Forest Floor by Ann Cunningham, photo courtesy the artist. This image tests the limits of tactile discernment

Tactile Art: Expanding Access to Information

Ann Cunningham, Matthew Gesualdi and Nicole Johnson

Jul 22, 2020 06:00 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada)

Join three leaders in the emerging field of tactile graphics to see how tangible pictures can expand access to information. Explore how your ideas and art could be shared with a wider and more diverse audience!  

Ann Cunningham teaches art at the Colorado Center for the Blind. Ann has created accessible children’s books and public artwork for institutions across the U.S.
Matthew Gesualdi, holds a B.A. in Industrial Design and an M.A. in Educational Leadership, with expertise in 3D printing. He is currently a member of the Denver Art Museum’s Access Advisory Group.

Nicole Johnson is pursuing a Ph.D. within the ATLAS Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder. She produces tactile graphics for higher education textbooks.

To join this Zoom Webinar, please click here.

Ernest Thompson Seaton - A Legacy of Wildlife Conservation

 The Sleeping Wolf, oil on canvas 1891 by Ernest Thompson Seton

Ernest Thompson Seton: A Legacy of Wildlife Conservation

Historian David L. Witt, Santa Fe, NM

Wednesday, June 17, 6 p.m. MDT | (Online Zoom meeting)

Join historian David L. Witt to learn about the work and legacy of Ernest Thompson Seton (1860-1946), influential naturalist, author and artist who elevated wild animal preservation to a national cause. A popular educator and wildlife illustrator, Seton helped establish an important foundation for today’s environmentalism and wildlife conservation.

Witt is curator of the Seton Legacy Project at the Academy for the Love of Learning in Santa Fe, where he oversees research, collections, exhibitions, and programs related to Ernest Thompson Seton. He founded the Southwest Art History Conference and was the curator of the University of New Mexico’s Harwood Museum of Art in Taos from 1979-2005.

From: The Worlds of Ernest Thompson Seton- Knopf 1976

Meet the Moth Migration Project

Hawk moth by Hilary Lorenz

Meet the Moth Migration Project

Artist Hilary Lorenz, Brooklyn, NY and Abiquiu, NM

Join us to hear about print maker Hilary Lorenz’s Moth Migration Project, a multi-sensory installation featuring thousands of hand-printed paper moths crowd-sourced from around the world. In this project the moth—a nocturnal pollinator—becomes a symbol of communication in both the physical and digital world as well as a tool for building communities of diverse cultures, ages, and nationalities.
In 2017 Lorenz put out a call on social media for hand-printed cut paper moths. The overwhelming response launched a multi-year effort that included crowd-sourcing artwork, relationship development, community programming, exhibition creation, and international exchange.

Hilary Lorenz is a Brooklyn-based artist. She makes large-scale installations of printed and cut paper that revolve around her physical exploration and relationship with the natural world. Lorenz is a Fulbright Scholar and NEA Mid-Atlantic Fellow. She received her MA and MFA from the University of Iowa and is a Professor at Long Island University, Brooklyn.

Mitchell Hall

March 18, 6:30-8 p.m.

Pollen Grains – World Travelers without a Passport

Pollen Grains – World Travelers without a Passport

Mervi Hjelmroos-Koski

Join us to explore the incredible world of pollen grains. Pollen has a unique outer wall made of one of the toughest materials known in the organic world, resistant to high temperatures, acids and bases, enzymes, and other chemicals. As a result, pollen grains that are hundreds of millions of years old – as old as the time of the dinosaurs - can still be studied today, providing valuable insight into plant-climate interactions, landscape development, human impact on vegetation and even forensic investigation.

Mervi Hjelmroos-Koski is a Finnish-born scientist with a Ph.D. in quaternary biology from the University of Lund, Sweden, and D.Sc. in aeropalynology from the University of Stockholm. She has worked with pollen grains since her first year of college in Finland and has been involved in all aspects—from marine archaeology to asthma, and from lake sediments in the arctic tundra to the snowfields in South Georgia, Antarctica. The author and co-author of over 100 scholarly publications, she has been a researcher and taught at universities worldwide. Since 2007, she has managed the School of Botanical Art and Illustration at Denver Botanic Gardens.

November 6, 6:30-8 p.m. Gates Hall

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Rozashi: The Art of Japanese Silk Embroidery

Rozashi:  The Art of Japanese Silk Embroidery

Margaret Kinsey, Deltona, FL

Rozashi is an ancient form of Japanese needlework that originated in China. Originally called Kyoto Nobles Rozashi, the technique was practiced by the ladies of the court and is passed down from one woman to another. Materials used are silk gauze and thread, as well as some use of metal threads. Traditional designs typically feature geometric forms as well as birds and flowers.

Margaret Kinsey teaches for both national embroidery organizations in the US, and for the Embroidery Association of Canada.  She was the keynote speaker at the 2012 New Zealand Embroidery Guild Conference in Christchurch, NZ and has chaired three EGA International Embroidery Conferences, she is also the 2020 recipient of the National Academy of Needlework’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Margaret is EGA Certified Teacher in silk and metal thread techniques and is the US teacher for the Kunimitsu Rozashi Studio.

September 18,6:30-8 p.m.

Rethinking Roadsides: Exploring Rights-of-Way as Habitat

Rethinking Roadsides: Exploring Rights-of-Way as Habitat

Haley Stratton, Environmental Scientist

Roadsides across the country add up to more than 17 million acres of area that could provide much needed habitat for birds, small mammals and pollinators. Simple changes in management of rights-of-way are can provide ecological, economic and aesthetic benefits.

Haley Stratton is an Environmental Scientist at Felsburg Holt & Ullevig (FHU), specializing in transportation engineering, planning, and sciences. Her favorite part of the job is combining ecology with transportation services for innovative solutions to the negative effects of transportation projects.

Cafe Botanique

April 17, 6:30-8 p.m.

Gates Hall

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