Rachel Carson

Rachel Louise Carson: ecologist, author, marine biologist, academic, environmental activist, biologist, scientist, journalist

We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost's familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster.
The other fork of the road -- the one less traveled by -- offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth.     Rachel Carson

With the current administration waging a all out war of the environment and calling global warming fiction, it was time to feature a woman known for her studies and campaigns for nature and the environment. Below you will find quips from and links to web sites where you can read more throughly about this strong and driven advocate for the environment. VF

Carson began her career as an aquatic biologist in the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, and became a full-time nature writer in the 1950s. Her widely praised 1951 bestseller The Sea Around Us won her a U.S. National Book Award,[2] recognition as a gifted writer, and financial security. Her next book, The Edge of the Sea, and the reissued version of her first book, Under the Sea Wind, were also bestsellers. This sea trilogy explores the whole of ocean life from the shores to the depths. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Carson

fish pattern by virginia fitzgerald,
"always inspired by the sea. as my senior project
I created a wall mounted,
soft sculpture aquarium."

Her best-known book, Silent Spring, led to a presidential commission that largely endorsed her findings and helped to shape a growing environmental consciousness. http://www.biography.com/people/rachel-carson

Perhaps the finest nature writer of the Twentieth Century, Rachel Carson (1907-1964) is remembered more today as the woman who challenged the notion that humans could obtain mastery over nature by chemicals, bombs and space travel than for her studies of ocean life. Her sensational book Silent Spring (1962) warned of the dangers to all natural systems from the misuse of chemical pesticides such as DDT, and questioned the scope and direction of modern science, initiated the contemporary environmental movement. www.rachelcarson.org

She wrote pamphlets on conservation and natural resources and edited scientific articles, but in her free time turned her government research into lyric prose, first as an article "Undersea" (1937, for the Atlantic Monthly), and then in a book, Under the Sea-Wind (1941). In 1952 she published her prize-winning study of the ocean, The Sea Around Us, which was followed by The Edge of the Sea in 1955. These books constituted a biography of the ocean and made Carson famous as a naturalist and science writer for the public. Carson resigned from government service in 1952 to devote herself to her writing. http://www.rachelcarson.org/Bio.aspx

Rachel Carson on wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Carson

the Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson

http://www.rachelcarson.org/Default.aspx

Rachel Carson on thoughtco.com

https://www.thoughtco.com/rachel-carson

Biography.com

www.rachelcarson.org/Bio.aspxhttp://www.biography.com/people/rachel-carson-9239741

Maria Sibylla Merian

Maria Sibylla Merian: Artist, Naturalist, scientific illustrator,  botanical artist, entomologist, social 

activist, traveler, mother.

(this post has fallen victim of my desire to share all the wonders of this amazing woman.  I love her work, her chutzpah, her interests and her paintings.  Her work has also influenced many areas of my work, see below)

She is also an example of an strong independent woman as she traveled alone with her daughter Dorothea in pursuit of her work. In 1699, Merian received a grant from the city of Amsterdam allowing Merian to travel to the Dutch colony of Surinam, South America.  This was, as Merian stated, " a long dreamed of journey to Suriname."(Foreword from Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium (Metamorphosis of the Insects of Surinam)

During the two years that she was there, she traveled around the colony studying and sketching the local flora and fauna, and she drew from direct observation of the insects which was not a common practice of the time, this allowed her to document much more than had been shown before.  Also since her sole reason for her trip was scientific study her trip may have been one of the first travelers to "plan a journey rooted solely in science."(Reidell, Heidi (April 2008). "A Study of Metamorphosis". Americas. 60 (2): 28–35. Retrieved 10 August 2015. )

  Because of her careful observations and documentation of the metamorphosis of the butterfly, she is considered by David Attenborough^[4] to be among the most significant contributors to the field of entomology. She was a leading entomologist of her time and she discovered many new facts about insect life through her studies.^[5]

It was also during her trip to Suriname that she spoke up for the mistreatment of the natives and the slaves by the Dutch.

The pursuit of her work in Suriname was an unusual endeavour, especially for a woman. In general, only men received royal or government funding to travel in the colonies to find new species of plants and animals, make collections and to work there, or to settle. Scientific expeditions at this period of time were not common, and Merian's unofficial, self-funded expedition raised many eyebrows. She succeeded, however, in discovering a whole range of previously unknown animals and plants in the interior of Surinam. Merian spent time studying and classifying her findings and described them in great detail. She not only described the insects she found, but also noted their habitat, habits and uses to indigenous people.[7] Her classification of butterflies and moths is still relevant today.

 here is some of the ways her work has influenced me ... BUGS!!!

'metamorphosis ...'
a collaborative project/dress
with the student body that would be presented at the Dana Hall Fashion Show

click here is read more about this project

bugs I commissioned for a toy company a long time ago
they were put on 'pogs'

'lilith in blue ...' with accompanying paintings

detail of my installation 'this comes from within ...'

click here to read more about this amazing installation from 2009, medicine wheel, boston