Alternative Field Guide

A sequence of images created by
visual artist, Kate Kern,
Of participants in the July 2008
Ohio Arts Council artist-in-residence program
at the
Lloyd Library and Museum
Cincinnati, Ohio.

The activities leading to the images were designed to connect each participant's personal
experience with the tradition of understanding the natural world through collecting,
categorizing and arranging evidence of careful observation.

This attention to observation fuels the imagination.
It engages all our senses.
It heightens our awareness of the cycle of life and death and
our appreciation of the life around us.

Participants included the Art4Arists group and the Teen summer group at the
Clifton Recreation Center, the librarians of the Civic Garden Center and
core group members who also made individual pieces during the residency.

We are Inserting ourselves into natural history,
Showing that we are part of this
ongoing process,
not separate from it.

Participants used drawing and writing to
observe, explore and imagine.

After drawing a small object without looking at it
(holding the object hidden in a large envelope and drawing it with the other hand),
participants imagined these as magical objects that could transform them into the subject
of the dictionary drawing or photo that they selected.

Participants visited the Zoological Collection of the Geier Collections and Research Center of the
Cincinnati Museum Center to select zoological object for this series of photographs,
followed by items of personal significance in combination with selected pages and
covers of books in the Lloyd collection.

Dr. Herman Mays, Zoology curator, leads residency participants on a visit through the dry Zoology collection.

Participants create temporary still lives in the Lloyd Library.

Librarians from the Cincinnati Civic Garden Center select a page or
an image of personal significance from a book in the Lloyd collection.

Teen participants from the Clifton Recreation Center's summer camp made still lives of natural objects in their hands and then came to the Lloyd to select an image of personal significance from the Lloyd's collection.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thank you to Dr Herman Mays and the Geier Collection and Research Center
for access to the Geier Zoology Collection.

All activities took place during July 2008 as part of an Ohio Arts Council funded
artist-in-residence grant at he Lloyd Library and Museum.

©2008 Kate Kern