Impressions of the Georgia Coast from the Georgia Sea Grant College Collection of Contemporary Art

IMPRESSIONS OT THE GEORGIA COAST FROM THT GEORGIA STA GRANT COTI,TGE COTTECTION OT CONTEMPORARY COASTAI, ART

The Sea Grant Program The National Sea Grant Program was established by Congress in 1966 to encourage the development, use and conservation of marine and Great Lakes resources by tapping the expertise residing in university centers of coastal states. Twenty-nine states now participate in this federalstate-industry partnership.

Georgia entered the program in 1971. In 1980, The University of Ceorgia was awarded Sea Crant College status, an honor granted for almost a decade of sustained excellence in all three areas of program activity - marine research, advisory service, and education. The 15th program in the nation to receive this designation, the Georgia Sea Grant College Program was recertified in 1990 after rigorous review by a distinguished panel of experts.

Today, scientists from several private and University System institutions, along with researchers, educators, and marine specialists on Sapelo Island, Skidaway lsland, and in Brunswick, utilize Sea Grant support as they work to achieve practical solutions to problems of marine resources utilization and management. The Georgia Sea Grant College Program now functions as a unit of The University of Georgia's new School of Marine Programs, which comprises also the Marine Extension Service, the Marine Institute, and the campus-based Department of Marine Sciences.

This multifaceted program works at many levels toward a better understanding of coastal and marine processes and a wiser use of the area's natural resources.

The challenge is great. From the inshore marshes to the continental shelf, conflicting demands on limited natural resources create social, economic, political, and legal confrontations. Advisory specialists work on the scene to help define problems and issues, then help to locate the skills and knowledge to address them. Marine education is especially important in Ceorgia where the agricultural tradition is more pervasive than the marine influence. Over 90% of the state's population lives more than 100 miles from the coast, and it is important that all citizens understand the pressures from inland areas that impinge upon coastal and marine ecosystems. At The University of Georgia's Marine Extension Service facilities on Skidaway Island, marine educators and interns work with Sea Grant support to help students at all levels and interested persons of all ages learn about marine resources, coastal and barrier island ecology, and the region's maritime heritage.

The Art Project In 1980, the Georgia Sea Crant College program began a project designed to incorporate the use of visual art into a unique educational venture. The idea was to invite selected artists to participate ' in a visual and aesthetic query that would result in a collection of artworks on coastal subject matter. Using art as a powerful and emotionally compelling medium to focus the attention of Georgia's large inland population on coastal and marine resources, the collection could serve the purposes of documentation, interpretation, and education, as well as aesthetic enjoyment.

The collection now contains works by eleven artists. Most have been inlanders who were provided ciirect exposure to the coastal environment and an opportunity to work with marine scientists to gather background material for their work. Through this collection, you are invited to share with these gifted people their encounters with various asPects of the Georgia coast.

JUNE BALL A landscape artist who works mostly in oil, June Ball's painting is traditional, but not always realistic. "l tried uerg hard when I was painting on the coast to capture a particular island at a particular season, and I hope someone will get the feel of being on Sapelo, for instance, in Februarg when the wind's blowing...so therefore mg colors would be oerg cold."

ALAN CAMPBELL

Two week-long exploratory trips sixty miles out on a fisheries research vessel, the CEORGIA BULLDOG, provided this artist with material for a series of representational watercolors and oils. "l'd like somebodg to feel some of the things I felt out there. Not the romantic uiew of things, but some of the underlging tenstons and enuironmental threats gou feel out there."

JACKSON A. CHEATHAM ffre

crisp lithographs, drawings, and etchings by Cheatham often focus on sensual textural details. "lt's the textural feeling that I get from palm trees that makes them compelling objects for me...the shape...the way the light hits."

CLAIRE CLEMENTS ttre layered works created by Claire Clements from foamboard, colored paper, sprayed and powdered pigments, resemble aerial views of estuarine systems. "l wanted a sense of the uastness of the area, the sense of light, the aerial perspectirse that gets dimmer and dimmer as it goes back into deep space."

BARBARA DANIEL The work of the illustrator deals with a more precise kind of communication. "The need of the uiewer to identifg the

species of turtle in mg

drawing was the

important thing for me."

PAULA EUBANKS The hand-colored silver prints which are often manipulated in creative ways by photographer/artist Paula Eubanks evoke both an inner, very personal landscape as well as an exterior geographical portrayal of Georgia's coast. "Mg response to the beautg of the landscape on the barrier islands probablg is colored bg the pain I feel about the lost paradise of mg

gouth."

TOM HAMMOND

Hammond's etchings, mezzotints, and colored ink drawings have a lyrical, sometimes brooding romanticism. His more recent watercolors also have this quality. "Ihe weather, storm, stress, lightning striking, the atmospheric changes in the coastal landscape - I think mg work is as much about that as it is about the obseroed landscape."

JUNE FRAZIER JOHNSTON, N.W.S.

The highly abstract watercolors by June Johnston evoke both the murky mystery and the clean, sunlit feeling of the coastal area. "The feeling on Cumberland was open and beauti.ful, but Sapelo had an eerie, comi.ng-in-on-gou feeling. You could feel the historg and the people who had been there hundreds of gears ago. You could feel their presence."

JUDITH M. McWILLIE tfre

raw, vibrant colors of McWillie's abstractions in acrylic carry a wealth of feeling and information about the ocean. "The ocean tsn't a cold, grag thing. It's full of life! It's teeming under there. And oiolence and struggle are there, a whole uniuerse as complex as

angthing we know of."

CAROLINE MONTAGUE Montague's pastel and graphic drawings play a soft, sophisticated, but harmonious counterpoint to her primary art form which is sculpture. "l looed that marsh mud.

It was beautiful. Magbe it goes back to mg experiences with clay. But I reallg liked the uarietg of textures that I saw at the coast...and the subtle winter colors."

ARTHUR S. ROSENBAUM A musician also, Art Rosenbaum likes to paint people in the act of making music. "When people are singing or mouing, that translates into uisual terms. I will neuer forget the energg of the rtng shout."

_@_ TheUnirrersitydcr.".g" Sea Grant College Program

Ecology Building Athens, GA306O6-2206 Phone (706) 542-6009

FAX(706) 542-3652