[SOA] Art Exhibit Opening February 2, 2008, Lloyd Library and Museum

[Anna Heran]

PRESS RELEASE                                         Contact:
Maggie Heran, Director

 
Lloyd Library & Museum

 
513-721-3707

 
mheran at lloydlibrary.org

For Immediate Release

 

January 7, 2008

 

The Works of Artist Lynn Carden in the Gallery at Lloyd Library and
Museum 

"It Began at the Lloyd: An Artist's Journey" February 2-April 30, 2008

Opening Reception: Saturday, February 2, 2008, 4-6pm

 

             This exhibition will be a departure from the "typical" one,
in which an artist displays his or her most recent work.  This one will
actually be a retrospective that documents Lynn Carden's research
experience at the Lloyd and the art she subsequently began making.  From
her original sketch books to the Lloyd resources in which she found
inspiration and its results, Carden will hang her unique
floor-to-ceiling mixed-media drawings, create a "mini" installation of
her sketch books, tools, and books from the Lloyd collection as well as
display a few of her more recent pieces.  The exhibit will allow
visitors to see how her work developed over the dozen or so years since
she first visited the Lloyd.  Carden tells the story beautifully in her
own words:  "In 1998 the Art Academy of Cincinnati hosted an exhibit of
my work-a roomful of huge, blown-up depictions of the tiny working parts
of flowers. Outrageous as they were, the story of how they came to be is
a tale of quiet inquiry at another of Cincinnati's cultural
institutions, the Lloyd Library.

"During the preceding winter, when my garden lay under a blanket of
snow, I put down my brushes to do some research. For years I'd been
drawing and painting botanical matter as still life, landscape, and more
recently as the subject of botanical illustration. But I knew little
about this last genre.  I certainly was not a scientist as the early
illustrators had been: they bisected their lilies and orchids; they
studied the botany.  So what could I learn from the work they left
behind?  I needed to find out. And that is what drew me to the Lloyd
Library.

"At first I didn't know whether the library would tolerate an artist
working in its midst.  But the staff cheerfully brought me book after
book from its stacks, offered me white gloves to use while handling
their precious antiquities and moved furniture so that I could work.  

"In this quiet and friendly space, I leafed through page after page of
colorful depictions of the world's flora. But what fascinated me were
the line drawings that accompanied the flamboyant flowers, the tiny ones
that defined the flower's reproductive parts. Their infinite variety and
sensuality amazed me. Using a magnifying glass and chalk, I sketched
their intricate shapes, enlarging them many fold until I had enough of
them to cover the walls of my studio. And from these studies, I made the
eye of a pansy into a six foot sculptural shape on canvas, the throat of
an iris into a venus-like statue.

"Since that time, those little drawings from the archives of the Lloyd
have continued to be a source of inspiration for my newer work which I
will also be displaying at the upcoming show in the library's beautiful
new gallery space."

            The Lloyd Library and Museum, located at 917 Plum Street,
downtown Cincinnati, is a local and regional treasure.  The library was
developed in the nineteenth century by the Lloyd brothers-John Uri,
Curtis Gates, and Nelson Ashley to provide reference sources for Lloyd
Brothers Pharmacists, Inc., one of the leading pharmaceutical companies
of the period.  Today the library is recognized worldwide by the
scientific community as a vital research center. The library holds,
acquires, and provides access to both historic and current materials on
the subjects of pharmacy, botany, horticulture, herbal and alternative
medicine, pharmacognosy, and related topics.  Although our collections
have a scientific focus, they also have relevance to humanities topics,
such as visual arts and foreign languages through resources that feature
botanical and natural history illustrations, original artworks, and
travel literature, thereby revealing the convergence of science and art.
The Lloyd is open to anyone with an interest in these topics.  Free
parking is available for patrons and visitors behind the library
building.  For more information, visit the Lloyd website at
www.lloydlibrary.org.

 

Lloyd Library and Museum

917 Plum Street

Cincinnati, Ohio 45202

513-721-3707

www.lloydlibrary.org

Open Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Open the third Saturday of the month, September through May, 9:00 a.m.
to 4:00 p.m.

 

 

Bringing Science, Art, and History to Life

 
Anna K. Heran
Archivist/IT Specialist
Lloyd Library and Museum
917 Plum Street
Cincinnati OH 45202
(513) 721-3707
www.lloydlibrary.org <http://www.lloydlibrary.org/> 
 
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