West Vancouver Memorial Library Exhibition

Animals On Polar Ice:  A Series of Oil Paintings and Sculptures 

Animals on Polar Ice is a collection of animal portraits and sculptures depicting animal characters in their habitat.  These works give honor and recognition to the various heroes of the polar expeditions as well as the domesticated animals that also were brought to the Arctic and Antarctic regions.  Included in this group of paintings and sculptures are depictions of cows who I witnessed on icebergs and in ice fields during one of my trips to Patagonia, and who have used floating ice as a means of transportation and survival for the past 200 years.  In addition, other indigenous animal life is also represented in this series of artworks, including dogs, musk ox, and polar bears.  The Ice Core Sculptures exhibited in this group are a series of artistically created ice core samplings featuring animal DNA in the form of hair samples and follicles imbedded into Ice Cores.  These cores represent actual ice cores drilled from glacial ice containing biological and environmental scientific data.  They contain real DNA material from dogs, ponies, musk ox, and polar bears.  This exhibition celebrates the diversity and challenges facing these animals.