Exquisite Creatures is in the final days of its second run at OMSI.
Christopher Marley’s nature collection occupies two floors.
In one word, it’s an incredible experience made more so by who I saw it with: Wife, kid, daughter in-law, and a four year old.
But not just any four year old, which I’ll get to.
But first:
I’m a fan of the work done by people who have no expectations of getting noticed for said work.
For example: my blog.
It turns out that Marley and I have a shared goal.
Through his travels across five continents, Marley found that there were still enigmatic organisms and minerals to be discovered in every biome he explored.
His life’s work is to broaden the world’s appreciation for these little-known or misunderstood elements of nature.
I like the idea of ‘life’s work.’
My life’s work is shining a light where it’s needed.
Going through things takes time, and it grinds away day after day. People in prison are going through things at a slow grind. They’re not who I’m not talking about.
Instead, I’m thinking and writing and explaining the emotional rescue needed for everyday life.
In good times we embrace, in bad times we get to work, in between those two what happens?
Some Russian writer, Chekhov, said it’s the day to day life that kills us because we know our roles in good times and bad. We know what to do then, but week to week, month to month?
“Any idiot can face a crisis – it’s day to day living that wears you out.”
Thank you for that, Tony.
I watched Ken Burns explain how he started out: “I had a film about the Brooklyn Bridge and no money. I could get a job and put the film on the shelf, but I knew if I did that I’d blink a few times and be sixty and wonder why?”
Shining the light with Marley?
Go out in the woods and look under a fallen branch and see what’s there.
Or go to OMSI.
Getting That Tingle Yet
There we were, looking at a gaggle of exquisite creatures, including this crab.
It’s maybe four feet wide. Holy cow.
We looked at reptiles and the four year old started naming them.
To be sure, I said they were something else and got corrected.
If there’s anything that gives hope for the future it’s bright kids.
What’s better for bright kids than shining a light for them?
That’s what it felt like walking through Exquisite Creatures with Christopher Marley’s work.
Artist Statement
In my mind, there is little separating art and life sciences. It is like trying to extricate dance from music.
Art’s purpose is to heighten our aesthetic sensibilities, to sharpen our ability to experience beauty, to empathize with those life systems we come into contact with, to derive pleasure or stimulation from our interaction with arranged elements, in whole or in part.
How does nature differ? We dance with it and within it. The aesthetics of nature is the rhythm we move to.
-Christopher Marley
Would you agree? I do.
Growing Up With OMSI
When I was in high school the science class took a field trip to OMSI each year for the science kids.
I was not a science kid then, but I am now.
The best thing about being late to science is not feeling like an idiot.
Do I have an exoskeleton? Maybe.
Or it’s a Halloween shirt. It’s good to know the difference.
What I do know is we don’t have to fear nature, or art.
Why not look at things and think about how we’d do it?
I looked at this snake and promised it I’d freeze dry it if it decided to cuddle up and squeeze.
About David Gillaspie
