Expeditionary artist Maria Coryell-Martin includes some of her equipment in “Witnessing Climate Change,” the new show highlighting the art she has made during and after traveling to the North Slope of Alaska. (Diane Urbani de la Paz/Peninsula Daily News)

Expeditionary artist Maria Coryell-Martin includes some of her equipment in “Witnessing Climate Change,” the new show highlighting the art she has made during and after traveling to the North Slope of Alaska. (Diane Urbani de la Paz/Peninsula Daily News)

‘Witnessing Climate Change’ exhibition in Port Townsend

Public programs are planned in coming months

PORT TOWNSEND — Walking into the gallery, a space filled with birds, sketches and sky, feels like looking over the traveler’s shoulder as she explored the North Slope of Alaska.

“I’m really drawn to this atmospheric light and space you can feel out on the coast,” said Maria Coryell-Martin, the expeditionary artist whose multimedia exhibition opens today at the Jefferson Museum of Art & History, 540 Water St.

Titled “Witnessing Climate Change,” the show is inspired by Coryell-Martin’s travels to Alaska’s Cooper Island and to the Utqiaġvik Baseline Atmospheric Observatory, the northernmost point of the United States.

After a pandemic-induced delay of more than a year, “Witnessing” will stay on display through December.

Artist Maria Coryell-Martin pauses beside two of the paintings inspired by her research on and around Alaska’s Cooper Island. (Diane Urbani de la Paz/Peninsula Daily News)

Artist Maria Coryell-Martin pauses beside two of the paintings inspired by her research on and around Alaska’s Cooper Island. (Diane Urbani de la Paz/Peninsula Daily News)

Coryell-Martin, who lives in Port Townsend, has assembled dozens of images from her research and creative process: pages from her sketchbook, large paintings, artifacts, even field equipment.

On one table, near paintings of Arctic terns and a multi-hued sky, is a crunched-up sardine tin — a polar bear got hold of it — alongside a seal’s mandible.

The Jefferson Museum is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays, with admission $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and $1 for children.

For information about its exhibitions, which also include “Along the Path,” Marsha Hollingsworth’s show of mixed-media drawings, visit JCHSmuseum.org or phone 360-385-1003.

A museum members’ preview party was slated for this evening, noted Shelly Leavens, Jefferson County Historical Society executive director.

Due to the rise in COVID-19 cases in the county, that indoor gathering has been canceled for now.

“Witnessing Climate Change” will bring a number of public programs in the coming months. They will range from an outdoor art workshop to a speakers’ panel, Leavens said. Details will be found on the museum website’s Exhibitions and Programs pages in early fall.

Coryell-Martin’s show also highlights the nearly 50-year sweep of research by ornithologist George Divoky.

Divoky has been studying the black guillemots of Cooper Island in Alaska since 1972, creating an extended data set that provides evidence of a warming Arctic.

Two summers ago, Coryell-Martin and educator Katie Morrison traveled to Cooper Island to accompany Divoky as he recorded data on the seabirds’ population and health. Out there, the artist sketched with ink and watercolor and did her own audio recordings, which she brought back home.

“I typically use recordings for my studio process,” Coryell-Martin said, adding she paints while listening to the birds, ice and water of the Arctic.

This exhibition is about climate change, yes. But Coryell-Martin doesn’t see it as a bleak harbinger. She finds reasons for hope — and action — in the research conducted in places where she’s traveled and worked.

“We have the information we need,” she said, so now is the time to act.

Voting for environmentally aware candidates “is huge,” as is voting with one’s dollars for products and services, she said.

And many businesses are changing their policies, Coryell-Martin said, including her own, arttoolkit.com. The small company, which will have a brick-and-mortar location on Sims Way later this year, has gone to plastic-free packaging.

Coryell-Martin is also more conscious about how often she flies in a jet, and the availability of carbon offsets.

Grounded by the global pandemic, she has stayed home in Port Townsend and pursued her passion: open-water swimming.

The museum show offers an alternative perspective on global warming, the artist added.

Art, Coryell-Martin said, filters life through the human hand and eye. She sees mixing art with scientific research, as her show does, as another way to share inspiration from the natural world.

“I love bringing science into ‘non-science’ spaces,” she said.

________

Jefferson County senior reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladailynews.com.

More in Entertainment

Artist Karen Hackenberg in her Discovery Bay home studio with her painting titled “The Floating World.” (photo by Craig Wester)
Port Townsend artist explores whimsy in paintings

Tacoma Art Museum to host solo exhibit

The light art piece, “Jellyfish” by Nicole Johnson, was part of the 2023 Light Art Experience in Webster’s Woods. (Matt Sagen/Cascadia Films)
Makers Market, Light Art Experience to open Friday

The Port Angeles Fine Arts Center will open its… Continue reading

Christine Brehan, left, Olympic Peninsula Doll Club president, and Sandy Brehan, cofounder of the group, share some of Sandy’s collection of miniature mannequins dressed in clothes that she made from original 1930s-1950s patterns. The blue skirt suit on the left was made by another member. The Brehans shared some of their collections with visitors and residents of Sherwood Assisted Living. (Emily Matthiessen/Olympic Peninsula News Group)
Dolls span countries, decades at Sequim show

Sherwood Assisted Living hosted the Olympic Peninsula Doll Club’s “Timeless… Continue reading

Tickets still available for Festival of Trees events

Tickets are still available for Festival of Trees events… Continue reading

Plays, music and puzzles top weekend events

Stage productions, music performances and a crossword puzzle contest highlight this weekend’s… Continue reading

Port Angeles Community Players to host auditions

Auditions for the Port Angeles Community Players’ production of… Continue reading

“Obstruction Point” by Anne Pfeiffer of Port Angeles is part of “Small Expressions,” the wide-ranging show which will open Friday at Northwind Art’s Jeanette Best Gallery in Port Townsend.
‘Small Expressions’ opens Friday in Port Townsend

One of the most wide-ranging exhibitions in recent memory… Continue reading

Actors, from left, Justin Stapleton, Mario Arruda and Sean Stone rehearse “Artificial Emotions,” a short play written by John Painter and directed by Bill Stone, far right. It will be the first of eight plays in Olympic Theatre Arts’ New Works Showcase through Sunday. (Matthew Nash/Olympic Peninsula News Group)
Olympic Theatre Arts offers New Works Showcase

Olympic Theatre Arts will offer eight new mini shows this… Continue reading

Song swap set Friday at Studio Bob

The second Song Swap is set for 7 p.m.… Continue reading

Samite, pictured during his Field Arts & Events Hall performance last fall, is returning to Port Angeles for a matinee and evening performance this Saturday. (Field Arts & Events Hall)
Samite, ‘Resilience’ return to Port Angeles this weekend

One-man play includes soft voice, African instruments

Singer-songwriter Stephanie Anne Johnson.
Stephanie Anne Johnson to play at the Palindrome

Stephanie Anne Johnson will perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.… Continue reading

Gingerbread kits available for library contest

Gingerbread kits are available for the 30th Uptown Gingerbread… Continue reading