Launi Lucas

• Audio description of "Ocean"

  
  

  Audio description of "Ocean" by Launi Lucas, Acadia Artist-in-Residence 2019
  Audio Transcript

  This image, rendered from a colorful variety of oil pastels, soft pastels, and colored pencil, depicts microscopic copepods and other zooplankton swimming in a drop of sea water with tiny bits of micro-plastic represented as random and overlapping colored circles. The three or four types of tiny animals have similar shapes and markings consistent with each species, but their size and orientation vary depending on their depth and direction of travel through the water. At a glance, there would seem to be dozens of organic lifeforms colliding with micro-plastic spheres within this dense and chaotic frame. One species looks something like a pale worm with thin fins flexing around its circumference. Another species is larger, oblong and translucent, principally brown with hints of internal organ structures aligned along a central core. Another species seems to have a complex, segmented exoskeleton that tapers toward what appears to be the broad arc of a royal blue tail.

“Ocean,” mixed media, 17 x 20 inches

Photo courtesy of Launi Lucas. Used with permission.

Depicting whales, and particularly baleen whales, and other marine life has been an important part of my work. As I arrived in Acadia, I began looking at recent studies on ocean micro-plastics and what affect they may have on aquatic life. Large marine animals are ingesting plastics, but so too are microscopic copepods and other zooplankton: a major food source for baleen whales.

The Gulf of Maine and Schoodic Penninsula is a captivating and powerful place: it crystallized my view and broadened my approach to making art. Imagery in “Ocean” represents the richness and vitality of life in a microscopic drop of sea water. It‘s a reflection on the necessity for adequate habitat conservation for vulnerable marine species.

– Launi Lucas

Tests of media samples on the reverse side of the artwork, including oil pastels, soft pastels, and colored pencil

Photo courtesy of Launi Lucas. Used with permission.

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Launi Lucas

As an assemblage artist, I’m influenced by fine artists and folk artists who use non-traditional materials in their creative process. There is a power, spontaneity, and passion there that always draws me in. There has never been a time in my life when I haven’t been a beachcomber, daydreamer and seeker of visual inspiration. Many of my sculptures represent marine based wildlife. There is no question that the wellbeing of our threatened and endangered flora and fauna face serious challenges ahead, and particularly those that depend on a healthy marine environment. This is usually in my thought process as I tinker about my workshop.

Launi Lucas is a sculptor, painter, and biological illustrator. She is an alumni of Emily Carr University of Art & Design and The Banff Centre; is a former member of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, specializing in insect illustration at the University of British Columbia. Lucas is represented by i.e. Gallery in Edison, Washington. Visit her website.

“Baleen Whale and Figure,” buoy assemblage, 19 x 9 x 9 inches

Photo courtesy of Launi Lucas. Used with permission.

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