The Wildling Museum of Art and Nature will present Nature Through the Eye of a Needle featuring Dr. Isabel Downs and her husband, marine biologist Robert Warner. Downs is a fiber artist who has worked alongside her husband for decades, as a research assistant and as an artist chronicling their scientific endeavors. In a Q andA with the Sun, she explains how she got started as an artist and what kind of work she and her husband do.
Sun: Tell me about your background/childhood. Where did you grow up? What about your background led you to art or inspired you to become an artist?
Downs: I was born in Mexico and grew up in Trinidad, at the time an island in the British West Indies, now an independent country along with its sister island Tobago. For all that [time], my father was a medical doctor specializing in epidemiology … his passion for nature was shared with us children in countless ways, and we were introduced to birdwatching, snorkeling, and other fun activities at a very young age. I sketched and painted mostly in watercolor from a very young age simply because the environment I was in was so incredibly colorful. While still a graduate student at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, I was asked in circumstances I do not recall to take over the duties of illustrator for the public aquarium. That put me on a sharp learning curve. It was at this time that my boyfriend, now husband, Bob Warner, came to play a signal role in my work. He is an ichthyologist among other things and so insisted that my illustrations be absolutely scientifically accurate. I learned how to identify the key features of any given creature/plant under observation. In the many years that we have been together, I have continued to hone my observational skills under [Warner’s] tutelage.
After grad school, we relocated to Panama where he worked at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. There was no staff illustrator so I happily fell into that role and worked with scientists in wildly differing disciplines such as botany, anthropology, and ethnomusicology.
The “doctor” part of my name, which I never use, was earned in French literature. My Ph.D. was on a peculiar phenomenon of the 20th century, the illustrated modern French bestiary. A bestiary in the Middle Ages was a book which used animals to teach moral lessons. Many centuries later, French poets and painters revamped that idea by collaborating on making a beautiful limited edition book, which again used animals to teach us about human nature. Some of the great names of 20th century French literature and art were involved. There are about 100 such books, some small fraction of which I own and all of which I studied in private and public libraries the world around.
Sun: Why do you think the fusion of science and art is so important? What are some of the things that you think scientists and artists can learn from one another?
Downs: Artists can impart a great deal of sensitivity to scientists while the latter can instruct the former in attention to verisimilitude and detail; they each can inform the other. Some aspects of aesthetics and art appreciation are innate, based in biology. Understanding those aspects makes for more compelling artistic creations.
Sun: Your process involves a lot of different media and tools. How do you start a typical project? What is your process like from conception to completion?
Downs: An idea is born of a surprising observation (either on my or [Warner’s] part). Then I or we collect materials and, if need be, I learn a technique from someone with that skill such as the origami used for the starfish. I stash the components in little tubs until I think I have enough—this is how the marine quilts were put together. More recently, I study photos, both my own and ones online, of whatever and wherever, until there is an “aha” flash. Then I wrestle with design, next construction, and then lastly quilting the piece (my least favorite part of the endeavor).
Sun: In your own words, explain what “Nature Through the Eye of a Needle—a Shared Adventure” is and describe the kind of artwork that you do. How does it play a role in conjunction with the scientific elements?
Downs: The exhibit showcases those pieces of my work which are nature based. The title suggests that someone utilizing a needle, either hand or sewing machine, will necessarily record things differently than someone armed with a brush or pencil or sculpting tool or camera, digital or otherwise. I enjoy a good pun or witticism, hence the title of the exhibit and the title of the tidepool piece. In our many years together, [Warner] has first and foremost acted as the reason I’ve found myself in so many exotic locales doing field work, as his research assistant in many cases. He has also been a mirror, a sounding board, a gentle critic, and most importantly a scout for just the right material that would suggest a given creature or plant. Unlike other husbands in a fabric store or at a quilt show, he does not drag along unwillingly behind or sit in a corner and pout, instead he dashes around to the different vendors looking for the perfect material and dragging me along behind him.
Arts and Lifestyle Writer Rebecca Rose is in stitches. Contact her at rrose@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jan 24-31, 2019.
Isabel Foster Downs a effectivement effectu un travail absolument remarquable sur le bestiaire franais au XXe sicle ; sa contribution la connaissance de l’art de Jean Lurat, notamment, est trs prcieuse.
Isabel Foster Downs has indeed carried out absolutely remarkable work on the French bestiary in the 20th century; his contribution to the knowledge of the art of Jean Lurat, in particular, is particularly valuable.
Grard Denizeau