In The Bee- ginning
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| Dianne Parmelee with her performance art creation |
There was Dianne:)
Dianne Parmelee that is, who is the real instigator behind this Art of the Earth series of artist challenges that we will be exhibiting at Blue Horse Arts in June. Dianne is the Education Coordinator and Farm manager at the Flanders Nature Center. Dianne, herself a true creative, is one who naturally combines seemingly unrelated events into invitations for creative expressions with an eye on nature. Wearing her Farm manager hat, it was on a sheep buying excursion to Orzano’s Farm that she first spied Randy’s artwork and on the wall of his home. The kernel of an idea was planted, inspired by an interspecies collaborative drawing of a bee.(More on interspecies collaboration a little later:).
Dianne’s artists sensibility was triggered and from there ”The Plight of the Pollinators” Call to Artists was born. Kicking off this first challenge is a lecture by Dr. Susan Cusato on global pollinator disorders and the effects of this on the food supply and presentation by Randy Orzano of his artwork. This lecture presentation will be held at Flanders Nature Center on Friday, March 9th at 7PM.
(see details on this event below the post)
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| Dianne reading at Flanders |
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| Science Art Project |
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| Science Art Project |
By day, through the busy hours of spring, summer, and fall,
Dianne creates and manages the
educational farm program at the Flanders.
Her arts based children’s learning programs
have been the inspiration for many a child’s
initial exploration of the natural world
and their own creative potential.
It is during the gray days of winter and quiet evening hours she translates her day lit experiences with nature and children into dreamy, colorful compositions of words and brush.
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Sarafina Mudpie Oinker |
These animal based orchestrations speak to the imaginations of children. Cheerful and charming characters such as “Sarafina Mudpie Oinker”, a porcine painter who discovers her inner calling as an artist, is the first in a series of stories that Dianne has penned in a book by the same name.
The seeds Dianne plants, through image and story, cultivate an awareness of both nature and the potential of art in the child mind.
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| Dianne Parmelee - Author /Illustrator |
The importance of this cultivated awareness cannot be under estimated. Eminent biologist E.O. Wilson has put out a call to the artists, poets, musicians, filmmakers and the humanities in general, to communicate the concerns of conservation science to the public. Wilson also advocates early, direct experiences with nature for children to stimulate an attitude of scientific inquisitiveness and Biophilia. Personally I can attest to the influence of children’s literature both for my interest in environment and animals but also as an early awareness of art experienced through the imagery on the printed page.It was my father who inspired my love for reading through a steady diet of nature based children’s literature.
“Bambi “by Felix Salten, “Never Cry Wolf” by “Farley Mowat”, “Call of the Wild” by Jack London, and the works of Ernest Thompson Seton fostered an early sensitivity to the natural world. As I grew older authors such as Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, Barry Lopez, continued to expand on my interest in this subject. It was literature such as this that began to shape an environmental consciousness in the American public.
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| Randy Orzano - Bee Mixed Media |
Randy Orzano and Dr.Susan Cusato Presentation and Lecture at Flanders Nature Center and Land Trust.
Friday,March 9th,at 7PM.
$5.00 donation suggested.
5 Church Hill Road, Woodbury, Connecticut
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| Plight of the Pollinators |
To PARTICIPATE in artfully supporting awareness on critical environmental issues, please submit your artwork,visual poetry,sound art,music, or interpretive dance:) the Plight of the Pollinators call to artists through this link here. https://www.callforentry.org/festivals_unique_info.php?ID=949
excerpted from Edward Wilson, "Biophilia and the Conservation Ethic"
For more information on Biophilia, Arts and Environmental Education, E.O. Wilson Check the Links Below.
by David Moon
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