News
Alphabetum Botanicum opening reception and artist demonstration
6 September 2018
Join us Thursday, 13 September (5:00–7:00 p.m.) for the opening reception of our fall exhibition, Alphabetum Botanicum. This exhibition features Kandis Vermeer Phillips' illuminated letters, which are intertwined with plants, mammals and insects. Each letter is paired with a botanical artwork from the Institute's collection to create a literal or amusing relationship between the two, such as the connection of ants with an aardvark and a peony bud, the sunflower as a food source for a cardinal or the similar shapes of a fox's tail and foxtail grass. At 5:30 p.m. the curators and Phillips will give a short introduction to the exhibition in the gallery.
Phillips will give a demonstration on drawing letterforms in silverpoint in the gallery on Friday, 14 September (10:00 a.m.–noon and 2:00–4:00 p.m.). She will have available sketches showing the metalpoint process along with various metals and prepared papers with which visitors may experiment. In addition, she will discuss informally the history of illumination and metalpoint during the demonstration.
The reception and artist demonstration are free and open to the public.
About the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation
The Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, a research division of Carnegie Mellon University, specializes in the history of botany and all aspects of plant science and serves the international scientific community through research and documentation. To this end, the Institute acquires and maintains authoritative collections of books, plant images, manuscripts, portraits and data files, and provides publications and other modes of information service. The Institute meets the reference needs of botanists, biologists, historians, conservationists, librarians, bibliographers and the public at large, especially those concerned with any aspect of the North American flora.
Media Contact:
Scarlett T. Townsend
412-268-7304
st19@andrew.cmu.edu
