Hello everyone!
Thank you for welcoming me here in Morena. My name is Leah and I’m from Lisbon, Portugal. My 21 years of life called for an adventure, specially now during a pandemia, where distance seems bigger, frontiers further and walls higher. I’m thrilled to be here and had a wonderful time so far in the volunteer flat with Nadia and Sofia during our kwarantanna. We’re getting to know each other and have been eating delicious food prepared by us.
I recently finished my degree in Biology and are looking to maybe specialize somewhere in the Arts. I’m interested in plants and human’s relationship to them - the beautiful way plants can heal, teach and harbour an infinite amount of knowledge we are still to unveil. I hope I can share this beauty with you during the time I’m here.
I started Scouts when I was 8 years old and participated until I finished school. It has given me many opportunities to explore nature, people and helped me find a balanced way of living. So, in a way, I’m happy to be back in a community where scouts participate.
Lisbon is a warm city, in a warm country. I’m used to spending long afternoons in the sun and summers laying on the beach. I was afraid of the Polish cold, but I’m sure it will feel warm enough with a hot cup of tea shared with new friends and beautiful people I will meet throughout this adventure.
I hope to be able to share myself with Morena, Gdańsk and this community, and really hope to bring many pieces of you with myself back home.
Um abraço,
Leah
Workshop: Painting
Last week us volunteers prepared our second art workshop in Morena – painting! It was good to be able to welcome everyone in person, share the excitement of being with people and participating in a collective activity.
It all started with the preparation of our materials: canvas, colourful paints, brushes and… inspiration! Which was really not hard to find! The slight language barrier was overcome when we all started painting. With subtle hand gestures and joint views on the works produced, participants and volunteers were able to guide each other in creating beautiful art. Some people found inspiration in other paintings, pictures brough from home or even created abstract art, directly from their imagination and sensibility. I truly found this union through art something beautiful and mesmerizing.
It was so pleasant to be able to sit and paint, contemplate our work and other peoples master-pieces. Painting is a relaxing and introspective work. It takes patience and trains the eye on looking at the world as it is – a beautiful and inspirational place.
Thank you for joining us, and if you weren’t able to this time, we’ll see you in our next art workshop!
It all started with the preparation of our materials: canvas, colourful paints, brushes and… inspiration! Which was really not hard to find! The slight language barrier was overcome when we all started painting. With subtle hand gestures and joint views on the works produced, participants and volunteers were able to guide each other in creating beautiful art. Some people found inspiration in other paintings, pictures brough from home or even created abstract art, directly from their imagination and sensibility. I truly found this union through art something beautiful and mesmerizing.
It was so pleasant to be able to sit and paint, contemplate our work and other peoples master-pieces. Painting is a relaxing and introspective work. It takes patience and trains the eye on looking at the world as it is – a beautiful and inspirational place.
Thank you for joining us, and if you weren’t able to this time, we’ll see you in our next art workshop!
Biology and Art
Both Art and Science, at first view seem very different from one another, however, they seek a common tread – they are both forms of creation. “The greatest scientists are artists as well” said Albert Einstein. The purpose of science is to understand and create within the world, as in the Arts. Since the dawn of humankind people have looked in the word in awe, trying to comprehend its hidden secrets. Science and Art have walked hand in hand as they both roam the imaginarium of humankind aiming to unveil those secrets. An incomprehensible aura often associated natural elements to something holy, godlike, or from an unattainable outside source. This is the reason the natural world often coincided with the magical world and fairy tales of fungi, plants and mystical creatures.
Throughout history we can see evidences of this relationship between Art and Science. Hunter-gatherers (42 000 BC) left us the first ever representations of animals and their day-to-day activities. The reason is unknown, but undeniably the life of individuals and a community is registered now until the end of times. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) himself swam the murky waters of being both an Artist and contributor for engineering and science, with his illustrations of human anatomy. Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) was a German zoologist and naturalist whose scientific illustrations published in Kunstformen still leave many in awe. His work has shifted in importance throughout time. Illustrations made with the intent of being the most rigorous and true to fact as possible at the time are now symbols of a beautiful kind of artform.
Throughout history we can see evidences of this relationship between Art and Science. Hunter-gatherers (42 000 BC) left us the first ever representations of animals and their day-to-day activities. The reason is unknown, but undeniably the life of individuals and a community is registered now until the end of times. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) himself swam the murky waters of being both an Artist and contributor for engineering and science, with his illustrations of human anatomy. Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) was a German zoologist and naturalist whose scientific illustrations published in Kunstformen still leave many in awe. His work has shifted in importance throughout time. Illustrations made with the intent of being the most rigorous and true to fact as possible at the time are now symbols of a beautiful kind of artform.
Some museums are home for an herbarium. This is a collection of dry and preserved plants, like a library, but for biological specimens. It contains a lot of information, and particularly, it is a place where the Art and Scientific boundaries are often blurred. The oldest compilation of plants in this regard was found with the inscription “Here for you a smiling garden of everlasting flowers”. The first published book with scientific photography was by the botanist Anna Atkins (1799-1871), done using the technique of cyanotype. This created prints of plants, ferns and algae in a deep blue background. This technique was very important to the sharing of scientific information at the time, and now it is used by many artists, in a deconstructed way, creating similar or very eccentric images. Lourdes de Castro (1930) is a Portuguese artist who has created an Herbarium of Shades. This work consists on a compilation of silhouettes of many plant species, also done in many phototype techniques. It’s a beautiful works, and one of the ones who inspired me to pursue this topic of research.
Many artists have done important work contributing to science and many scientists have dwelled upon art. Others just seek inspiration from either side – art inspiring beautiful scientific searches, and science forever inspiring art. You should also see the works of Beatrix Potter, Karl Blossfeldt, Suzanne Anker, Lia Halloran, Daniel Zeller, Tomas Saraceno, Bryan Nash Gill and Vanessa Barragão. They are sure to leave you amazed at the wonders of the natural world.