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>> Hi, everybody, I'm Bridget Sullivan,
I teach in the Department of Art Design, Art History,
and Art Education over in the Center for the Arts Building,
you can find me on the fourth floor.
I'm -- I -- besides teaching interactive media design,
I'm also a digital artist and photographer.
Oh, it should say, it should be an I, not a J. I love to learn,
and I love to teach, I think that's why I came to here --
wound up at Towson as a professor.
As a graduate student, I studied painting, and at the time,
this was in the '90's, landscape painting was a little passe',
but my, my landscape painting was really
about educating the public about nature, and I painted
on Plein Air, which is outside, and I considered it performance,
I was trying to get people to slow down,
and look at what they were passing high speeds
in their cars.
As time went on, and the digital technology advanced,
I started looking more carefully at what I could do
with a digital camera and a scanner.
And I started looking closer at smaller things,
the minutia of nature, and discovered the mushrooms
in my backyard, the wild raspberries that we found
on a hike were quite beautiful, and I printed them very large,
and they became monumental.
It's through the discover of and the observation of nature
that I started to think about the omen of nature, the,
the little guys that do all the heavy lifting, that take care
of us, that keep the water clean, and the air clean
that we breathe, and how important they are,
and how a lot of times, we just don't even know they're there,
let alone cherish them, so through the improvement
of observation, my observation then ultimately being conveyed
to an audience, my hope is that everyone will begin
to appreciate and value those things in nature so much more.
My work is digitally printed, and then I draw or write on it
with pastel, it has a quality of much like a naturalist's natural
where I record what I experience,
I'm trying to capture what I see and share it.
And I'm also very interested in the waste,
or the nuisance species that nuisance to humans
that are actually, when you look at them, are quite beautiful,
this is sumac, which is a weed tree, but when you look
at the seed pods, they're stunning, and it actually --
in our history as humans has served as an element
in tanning leather, so this particular piece is called,
Shoemaker's Secret.
So, I'm writing about where I am and how I feel
about my natural experiences, and my hope is
that I can help you remember your natural experiences
and get you to go outside
and maybe walk barefoot, or look at a stream.
There are so many healing aspects to nature,
we derive so many medicines from nature, but also just to look
at nature is a helpful benefit to us, there are studies
that are being used in evidence based design
that where they found that when a recovering patient
from surgery, it has a view of nature out a window,
or even a picture of nature, they recover more quickly.
So, it's my hope that you can take a closer look
at the nature that's around you, and, and if you're interested
in -- well, actually [inaudible] back up,
I recently was awarded a Faculty Research Development Grant,
which has permitted me to now print my pieces much larger,
I'm working much larger, and I'm now drawing on them
with oil paint sticks, so my mark making is getting bigger.
In last, last May, I actually now have a studio outside
of my house, and which is like no artistry,
it's only taken 20 years to have them, and I'm making --
I'm working with [inaudible]
where I'm melting colored wax on my images as well.
I'm very interested
in an [inaudible] learning environments,
such as Second Life, and I now have a gallery and a studio
in Second Life, which I hope to be streaming a web cam
of my studio, so you can see me working too.
And just a plug myself, I have a show
down at Jordan Faye Contemporary Gallery,
which is down on Federal Hill on White Street,
the show's up until the 23rd of April,
but there's an opening this Sunday from 3 to 6,
and you're all invited to come.
[ Applause ]