Today I want to introduce you to Peggy Macnamara, the Field Museum’s artist in residence. Though I only knew her in passing while I worked there, I am an ardent fan of her work. (I also adore how sneakily her pieces are displayed in the halls of the Museum, just up on a wall mixed in with the specimens hanging out and giving you a totally new perspective on that dead lizard you’ve just passed.)
What I love about Peggy’s work is not just that it’s beautiful and intricate and articulate, but that it’s scientific. These are not impressions of animals, but deep rich renderings of them, accurate and true. The subjects of Peggy’s paintings have personality, and I feel like looking at her paintings gives you a perspective and appreciation that you don't always get from the specimen itself.
To me, these vibrant watercolors are the reverse side of Terry Evans’s work. Terry’s photographs take the specimens at the Field Museum and emphasize their stillness and timelessness. They are very definitely pictures of dead animals and plants, and the images take that death and make it something remarkable. Peggy’s paintings take those same specimens and give them life and color and vibrancy and a movement that’s really remarkable.
When I am rich, I shall have an office with Terry Evans photos on one wall and Peggy Macnamara paintings on the facing wall, mirror images of the same thing.
[UPDATE: Maybe it’s a good thing Blogger decided not to post anything last week. WBEZ, the public radio station in Chicago just did a profile on Peggy Macnamara, which you can listen to here.]
No comments:
Post a Comment