Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)

Several weeks ago, a good friend of mine who is an aviculturist, businessman and art collector, emailed to tell me about a book he had just purchased. Usually reserved, his praise was so effusive that I contacted the publisher immediately to obtain a review copy. A week later, the carefully bubble-wrapped and packed book arrived in the mail; Rigor Vitae: Life Unyielding: The Art of Carel Pieter Brest van Kempen (2006, Eagle Mountain Publishing, Eagle Mountain, Utah. Click image for larger view in its own window).

When I opened the box and began paging through the book, I realized this stunning volume captures a love story in all its sweetness and grace, with all its amusing and sad nuances. It is a love story about the relationship between an artist and his art, a man and nature, an observer and the world. The book opens with introductions written by two of Brest van Kempen's long-time friends and admirers, Carl Brenders and Dr. David J. Wagner, both praising his technical skill and passion before the artist takes center stage when he describes his goals for this book in the first section, 'Affecting Nature';

The body of work contained within this book is by no means a representation of the natural world, but of the relationship between that natural world and a single somewhat peculiar little man, of his response to that natural world as an artist, an American, a human, a mammal.

The remainder of the book is divided into four additional chapters that follow traditional taxonomy. Each chapter is filled with interesting and often amusing personal anecdotes liberally peppered with scientific information that serve to chronicle Brest van Kempen's growing relationship with nature and her denizens. Chapter one, 'Spineless Wonders', introduces us to the invertebrates, such as spiders, snails, grasshoppers, butterflies and moths, and the beetles, and includes several impressive accounts of entomophagy; 'Slithering Towards Gomorrah' focuses on the amphibians and reptiles - the frogs, lizards, turtles and snakes; 'The Song of Icarus' lingers over the birds, and last; 'A Class to Call Home', the smallest chapter in the book, describes some of the mammals such as rodents, bats, the big cats and the primates. The book ends with an inclusive appendix that lists the scientific names for each creature, and even for some of the plants, depicted in each piece.

Accompanying the author's words is a visual smorgasbord of images, and each picture is accompanied by an explanatory caption. There are 137 color plates, 8 black-and-white ink washes and 29 drawings in total. These images are lush and detailed, alive with tiny visual surprises waiting to be discovered, and many of them relate a story that will delight the astute observer. I could have written something about every image in this book for this review, so limiting my presentation here to only a few of these pieces was a challenge that consumed many days: how to choose from such a grand profusion?

Voluminous margins throughout this book are graced with lovely drawings of birds, mammals and invertebrates, adding dimension to the text. One of the first illustrations in this book is a beautifully detailed drawing of a tailless whipscorpion from the order Amblypygi, which Harry Potter fans will immediately recognize as the terrifying yet sympathetic creature that was tortured by "Mad Eye" Moody in his first classroom appearance in the 2005 movie, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (pictured, above right. Click image for much larger view in its own window)

Yet, despite the technical accuracy of the artist's drawings, it is his paintings that will capture your attention, and it is the story in the paintings that will keep your interest. For example, "A Question of Timing -- Double-Crested Basilisk & Blue Caligo," is a rich and detailed portrayal of this sit-and-wait reptilian species as it suddenly leaps after a blue caligo in flight (pictured, left. Click image for a much larger view in its own window). It depicts the unfolding story in that brief moment before the lizard is fully airborne .. will the butterfly escape or will it become a lizard lunch? The basilisk's right foot still touches a thin tree root that dangles down a clay bank overlooking a small creek .. will the lizard land in the water or will it somehow break its inevitable fall to earth? This contrast between movement and tranquility is also reflected in the precarious balance between the motionless, sun-dappled vegetation and the implied movement of the cool water flowing in the creek below -- water that appears so true-to-life that one can almost hear it trickle around leaves and stones.

I truly enjoyed the humor in this book. For example, one of the first paintings in this book, titled "Oviposition" (not pictured), shows a giant ichneumon wasp that has bored a hole through the brick wall of a ground-floor apartment, and pushed her ovipositor across the darkened room, penetrating the belly button of an oversized man who is clutching a can of beer whilst sitting in a worn chair in an alcoholic daze in front of a TV. This painting is made all the more disturbing because it closely resembles the building across the street from my laundromat in Manhattan. Another charming image, "Still Life Self-Destructing -- Common Raven," depicts a mischievous raven standing on a table in the artist's studio, a paintbrush in its beak as it wreaks havoc on a painting of itself (pictured, right. Click image for larger view in its own window).

My favorite medium is watercolor, so I might be somewhat biased in my admiration for the gorgeous "Drunken Hornbill -- Red-knobbed Hornbill" (pictured, left. Click image for larger view in its own window). In this watercolor, an individual hornbill sits on the forest floor, bill partially open, the iridescence and texture of its feathers and beak plainly visible. The bird's transient drunken vulnerability is accentuated by its position such that the audience is located somewhat behind it while the bird stares ahead, apparently unaware of our presence. Under the bird's feet is a delicate rainbow of leaf litter, overlying dried grasses, punctuated with mosses and occasional mushrooms.

As I mentioned earlier, the artist portrays water masterfully. Additionally, there often is a thin, palpable tension in many of his pieces. Both of these qualities are particularly evident in the lovely "Three More Worlds -- Rainbow Trout," where a rainbow trout is visible just beneath the surface of rippling water (pictured, right. Click image for larger view in its own window). But the peacefulness of this cool blue image is disturbed by the reflection of an osprey hovering overhead as it prepares to dive. This juxtaposition of an aerial predator reflected on the water's surface at the bottom of a skyless image is mesmerizing.

As an ornithologist, aviculturist and bird watcher, I am easily distracted and disappointed by inaccuracies in bird paintings, but Brest van Kempen's carefully rendered birds impressed me. Additionally, I am drawn to the suspended dynamism of black-and-white images, both photography and drawings, so I was especially enchanted by the African "Black Heron", Egretta ardesiaca, a black-and-white ink wash (pictured, left. Click image for larger view in its own window). This picture powerfully reveals the details of the bird's dark plumage as it leans, open-winged, over a shallow pool of water, providing a comforting oasis of shade that contrasts with the blinding white sunlight, attracting the fishes below -- fishes that the bird is preparing to dine on.

Once again, it is this startling tension between opposites; dark and light, movement and quiescence, warmth and coolness, that are so attractive in this lovely piece, "Markea neurantha" (pictured, bottom). This dramatic image portrays a pair of nectar-feeding bats suspended in midair as they feed from the dangling flowers of an epiphytic nightshade, blood-filled capillaries clearly visible in their nearly transparent curled wings -- a theme that is repeated by the veins in the plant's much more substantial leaves.

Beyond the obvious technical merits in Brest van Kempen's pieces, the aspect that I love most about his work is its astonishing emotional impact; his consistent ability to capture the fleeting perfection of each moment and his skillful portrayal of the stunning beauty surrounding us that we rarely notice along with the joyful and sweet, yet wistful and brief quality that this sudden recognition imparts. In short, this book is a stunning achievement, a visual celebration of a world that we all will only experience once. As such, this book is food for the hungry soul, comfort for the weary traveler: It is the saga of true love, and like all love stories, you will be compelled to experience it again and again.

[Rigor Vitae: Life Unyielding, 9″ x 12″ hardcover (304 pp) 137 color plates, 8 ink washes and 29 drawings (slideshow). Price: $65.00 (+ shipping and handling). A special leather-bound edition of this book is available. Please contact the publisher for details. Note: All images appear here with the kind permission of the publisher and the artist, and are protected by copyright laws. Besides, wouldn't you rather have the real thing?]

"Markea neurantha" (1995)
Acrylic on illustration board: 30" x 15"

For years, this plant was called Markea neurantha, but it was recently re-designated as Merinthopodium neuranthum. A member of the nightshade family that grows as an epiphytic vine among the branches of moderate-sized trees in Central American rainforests, it is pollinated strictly by bats, lowering its inflorescence on a yard-long "rope" to increase its chances of winding up in the open where it can easily be reached. One flower blooms at a time, opening at dusk and lasting but a few hours. This is sufficient though, for its sweet fragrance is irresistable to nectar-eating bats of the subfamily Glossophaginae. Here a pair of Lonchophylla robustum visit the flower. [Book caption].