The Arts in Antarctica

Look at the color! All I can say is "WOW!"

This is the southern-most active volcano in the world, Mt. Erebus. It looms over our town. They have a 24 hour camera on it that is solar powered and you can see what's happening in the crater of it on a huge screen in the science lab here.

The Arts in Antarctica:
I attended a lecture the other night given by a father/son team of professional painters (Alan and Colin Campbell). At this lecture I was suprised to find out that the National Science Foundation funds artists to come down here. In the past, they have sponsored musicians, painters, sculptors, poets, and authors. Their justification of investing money in the arts is that the general public does not read scientific journals, thus never understands the beauty and purpose of research in Antarctica. These painters are funded to travel the world and display their work in galleries and shows. Right now we have a "poet in residence" and a "mystery novel writer" on our base.

I want to tell you a little more about the father/son team that I thought was unique. First of all, they have to work in really cramped conditions and have to be careful to keep their paint from freezing. Some of the time they paint inside tents they had specially made that have lots of windows in them. Sometimes they sit inside a pisten bully (it has a bulldozer tracked wheeled system) and have to paint with their paper on a board resting on the steering wheel and dashboard. They use a lot of color in their paintings because of the way light reflects off the snow and ice (I think most people would think they would use a lot of WHITE, but they don't). Lastly, the father and son displayed their paintings side by side and it was amazing to see the differences in color choice and stroke techniques used to paint the same scene. I wish I could put some pictures of their work up here for you to see, but unfortunately all I have are the pictures they took of the scenery and then painted later. Enjoy.