PAINTING THE PAST – THE VALUE OF CREATING GEOLOGICAL ART

As an educational tool the process of creating geological art has at least as much value as viewing it. All of the questions we ask ourselves, or ask of students, are part of the creation process. How tall were lycopods? What assemblage of organisms should comprise the ecosystem? Would these animals be active during the day or night? What would the paleo-landscape look like? The creation of geological art should be considered as more than an interpretive end product, it can also be considered a valuable teaching tool.

In 1995, when the New Brunswick Museum developed its permanent earth sciences gallery ‘Our Changing Earth’, a team consisting of a paleontologist and two artists created fifteen murals in about twelve months. They also developed 120 line drawings depicting fossil plants, animals and traces. Prior to beginning the project none of the team members had ever met, and neither artist had dealt with the subject matter of the geological past. The project quickly became an interesting juggle to achieve technical accuracy, maintain the interpretive message, adjust for architectural constraints, deal with exhibition design criteria, consider artistic parameters, keep within budget and keep on time.

Most of the murals were painted at one-tenth scale and reproduced 2.7 metres high and up to 5 metres wide. The paintings were intended to be viewed from arms length. The gallery visitor was to become part of the scene, immersed with fossils in confined and intimate spaces. Seven years later most of the intent behind the creation of the works remains valid in the exhibit context, illustrating life-like recreations of most of the hundreds of plant and animal fossils exhibited in the gallery.

What we had hoped for, but were uncertain we could achieve, were spin-off uses for the art. We soon began to use the images as interpretive tools in public lectures, to enhance newspaper stories, and occasionally to supplement technical papers. Perhaps our best, unintended, use was to have the art included in the book ‘The Last Billion Years’ produced by the Atlantic Geoscience Society. In the end the artwork tells the story.