Natural History Museum - Ornithology

The ornithology department was probably my favorite department. We looked at penguins, parrots, owls, doves, songbirds, hawks, bones and wings and feathers and beaks and eggs - you name it. The ornithology department prepares their animals the same way the mammals department does.



Yay Science! What a fun experience.

Natural History Museum - Invertebrate Paleontology and Marine Biology

The invertebrate paleontology department was filled only with fossils from 35 million years ago to present. Again, shelves and shelves and drawers and drawers of fossils! The collection was impressive. Actually, last week I visited this department with a friend of mine to draw the fossils. She blogged her drawings here! My drawings did not come out as good.

The Marine Biology Department had both a fossil collection and a liquid collection. It was so amazing to see all of these animals in jars. I did not get many good pictures of the animals because I was way too distracted with all the animals around me. Talk about an overload!

Natural History Museum - Mammals

On Friday I visited the Natural History Museum with the ScArt Collective I am a part of. The biologists who gave us the behind the scenes tour were so enthused and passionate about what they study, it was so much fun to listen to them talk. I did not take many pictures, but others in our group did. We where shown around in four departments: mammals, invertebrate paleontology, invertebrate marine biology and ornithology.

The below photographs are of mammals:

Box of Florida Panther bones. They had about 30 Florida Panther pelts hung up like coats. When the mammal department receives a new animal, the separate the skin from the bones, put the meaty bones in a container with meat-eating beetles, and treat the skin. If the animal is small, they will stuff the animal with cotton - this is not taxidermy. Taxidermy animals are posed in natural ways. When you stuff animals to study, each species has a specific position. This way all the collections all over the world are uniform. So if you want to compare monkeys in South America with the monkeys in Asia, it is easier to compare because the two monkeys are posed exactly the same way. But the larger animals they keep as pelts because it is easier to store that way.

Pile of monkeys.

Drawer of groundhogs. All of those drawers were filled with animals. There were aisles and aisles of these drawers, each holding a different type of animal.



All of the boxes on the left wall were filled with manatee skulls. This was about half of the length of the warehouse.

Mesoamerican Notes

These are doodles completed my Mesoamerican Art History Class. Drawn is the Goddess of Teotihuacan and a coyote. Pictures of her originally rendered can be viewed here and here. There were more, but when the slides go by so fast, it's difficult to get detail.

Stump

My Metal Stump! It is 14" tall and 10" wide, perfect size for sitting on! This is the first of many stumps to come! Made of metal, gas welded and bent.

Drawing and Listening

Drawn at an antique car auction:

Drawn while conversing with Kt:

Drawn while listening to an NPR talk about Temple Grandin:

Instant Zine

While going though art magazines and making them kid-friendly, I came across an amazing picture that I quickly folded into an origami book. It is displayed from cover to back-cover. I love the simplicity, silliness and playfulness of this pocket-sized book!

Particle Collages

Collages that have inspired an installation. More on that later...