Natasha Luepke

The Exhibit: A new exhibit was installed at work recently and will remain in the building until September. “Exquisite Creatures” by Christopher Marley, https://christophermarley.com/

He makes art from preserved animals. The vertebrates are obtained ethically; they are animals that died in captivity, roadkill, bycatch. Some of the invertebrates are specifically farmed/hunted (hunted? is that what you say for an insect? caught?), but again in an ethical way. The animals are frozen, freeze-dried basically, and then he creates these displays.

It’s breathtaking.

In conjunction with this exhibit, we also have a public art show, “Wild Wonders,” which was an open call to the community to submit art in any medium that, you know, celebrates nature.

One of my pieces was accepted!

Ammonite shells in ink and watercolor. There’s a big display of ammonites and trilobites in Exquisite Creatures. 🙂

The Request: For the last few years, the entire kindergarten from a nearby school comes for a field trip in April or May. (It’s just two classes, about 40 students.) The main goal is really learning how to go on a field trip and how to behave in a museum. Though they were super stoked about Exquisite Creatures. 🙂 [There were 10 total chaperones! Apparently it was very competitive.]

Our Gallery Coordinator asked if I’d be interested in leading the tour, and I was like, heck yes! I love field trips and I love tours. 

We offer tours for free, but teachers can add on an activity for a fee. We match the activity to one of the galleries, of course. 

I suggested an activity based on the technique I used for my ammonite painting.

The technique: This idea was something I saw in a YouTube video ages ago and it kills me that I can’t find it again! This is a watercolor technique. You put painter’s tape randomly all over your paper, apply a layer of paint, remove some of the tape, add a layer of paint, remove some more tape, repeat.

Top picture: some of the tape (I didn’t take a lot of progress pics); in the second, all of the tape is removed, but you can clearly see where it was. 

The Gallery Coordinator and the Education Coordinator liked the idea. Our Education Coordinator also asked one of our teachers to help with the activity. We would split the kids into two groups: one with the art teacher and one with me, and then we’d switch.

The Problem: For my painting, I penciled in the ammonites, then outlined them in waterproof black ink. We didn’t have the time, really, to get the kindergartners to draw something on their paper, then apply the tape, paint, etc. And while random painting is fun, we wanted it to be related to the exhibit. You can print on watercolor paper, like print in the printer, but that isn’t waterproof.

So. I carved a stamp. I like carving stamps, but it’s been ages and I, well…I’m embarrassed about my skill level. I should be “better” considering how long I’ve been doing it. I was very careful and slow, and I think it came out pretty well! It’s not perfect like the vision in my head, but still.

I have a little printing press, so I took home watercolor paper and stamped 50-55 sheets. Some prints always come out junk-y, and I also wanted some extra in case teachers or chaperones wanted to participate. The stamp was a little bigger than my press, so I still had to use my knuckles to finish each print. They were definitely hurt-y by the end.

We’re focusing on ammonites specifically because of my painting, of course, but also because I have several real ones. For any kind of field trip, tour, or activity, I like to have objects for the kids (etc) to touch. And then I remembered I have a nautilus a friend made me about 20 years ago. Seeing a shell can be pretty abstract, but seeing a cute little knitted guy is much easier to grok!

(Ammonites are cephalods and probably looked like nautiluses, but are probably more closely related to squid/octupi.)

The Big Day: Finally it was field trip day. The Education Coordinator, Art Teacher and I arrived at 10:30 to set up. I decided to leave the knitted nautilus with the teacher, especially since the first batch of art activity kids would have even less of a clue what an ammonite is.

Her eyes lit up. “Does this little guy have a name?!”

“Huh, no, it doesn’t.”

After the field trip, I was informed it had been named Sammy the Cephalopod, and that he gave art critiques and high fives. My heart. She has been teaching for us for many years, especially younger kids, so she gets it. 

The students arrived, and first had lunch and recess at the playground attached to our building. They came in at 11:15, and we met them in the lobby; the art teacher took her group upstairs to the art room and I took mine to the gallery. 

The short version is that the field trip was great. The kids were so excited, so interested, and they tried so hard to not run, yell, or touch. They definitely did all of those things, but it was from a good place, you know what I mean? I will say, the second group was overall rowdier, and they had also been rowdier in the art class, but still.

First, I sat them in front of a picture at the very front of the main gallery. I have a photo of that piece, but it’s not great: 

First the basics: What colors do you see? What animals do you see? The big blue butterflies are Morpho butterflies, so we talked a little bit about them. I had them stand up next to the glass and tilt their heads to learn about iridescense.

Then we went into the middle of the gallery. Two moveable walls face each other. One side has ammonites and trilobites, and the other megalodon teeth and a full skeleton of a tiny Triassic non-dinosaur reptile. 

We talked about the various animals, and I shared my fossils. All of the kids did a good job sharing and taking turns, and all of my fossils were returned to me unharmed. I brought in three or four ammonites, one teeny tiny trilobite, and a small broken piece of megalodon tooth.

After that, we played a scavenger hunt game: Point at something blue, point at something round, etc. After a few minutes, we let them explore the gallery on their own. We had agreed I’d take my group upstairs to the art room and take the group that had been with the art teacher back downstairs. We went upstairs a few minutes early to look at some of the displays, then we switched.

That was basically the same for the second group. Except. I made a grievous, grievous error. I don’t even remember now what prompted it, but a kid said something about a king cobra and I, foolishly, carelessly, said “oh there’s one upstairs, you’ll have to come back and see it.”

The kids started yelling “king cobra king cobra!”

The teacher said it was okay that we go back upstairs. So we looked at the king cobra. They loved it. There are also some displays upstairs where you push a button to turn on a light. Once I gave them the okay, the also loved pushing the buttons, lol.

The black snake on the right is the king cobra:

The kids were….what am I trying to say….even rowdier. The teacher was like “do you have anything else?” She said it kindly, let me add. I said no, so she brought out pencils and papers and had the students draw their favorite animals. A few kids finished that, so she asked them to write down as many animals as they could. One little girl asked what to write, and the teacher said “cephalopod.” I gotta say, the kid did a great job using phonics; she came up with something like sefalapod. I was really impressed.

Then it was time to go! The other half joined us and everyone headed downstairs to the buses. 

Afterward, I asked how the art activity went. They loved it, and want to do it at summer camp this year. I said great, of course! The Education Coordinator asked if I’d do some tours for camp, and I said, YES. (I’m not teaching any camps this year.)

To make the activity even more special, we got glitter watercolors. One of the paints I used for my painting is Daniel Smith “Amethyst Genuine,” which I guess has actual gems or something ground up in it; it has a slight shimmer to it. We ordered some inexpensive paints for the kids to use, and they loved using those, too.

I was worn out by the time it was over.

Pictures from the field trip:

Did I wear one of my many prehistoric animal dresses from Svaha? Of course.