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

Kyle Bartholick-LeMaire (Sweeney Todd) and Angela Poynter (Mrs. Lovett) join the company for “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” at a rehearsal for “Sweeney Todd.” The show runs through Saturday at Sequim High School. (Matthew Nash/Olympic Peninsula News Group)
Ghostlight to stage ‘Sweeney Todd’ at Sequim High

Musical dark comedy runs Thursday through Saturday at auditorium

Sequim Arts Commission opens submissions for high school contest

The Sequim Arts Commission is accepting submissions for its sixth… Continue reading

Sheryl Goldsberry’s “Painted Mountains” is part of the exhibit Landscapes Real or Imagined on display at the Bay Club during November and December.
Port Ludlow Art League exhibit open through December

The Port Ludlow Art League will exhibit “Landscapes Real… Continue reading

Tickets on sale Monday for Festival of Trees events

Tickets will go on sale Monday for the Festival… Continue reading

Cellist Marlene Moore and pianist Don Mischel will perform Sunday at a fundraiser for Monday Musicale.
Monday Musicale to host fundraising concert on Sunday

Todd Ortloff will emcee the 57th Monday Musicale concert… Continue reading

Monthly art walks highlight Peninsula weekend events

Art walks, a stage production and a symphony performance highlight weekend events… Continue reading

“Space Cowboy” by Sue Stanton.
Oil paintings, ceramic art featured at First Saturday Art Walk

Gallery-9 and the Port Townsend Gallery will be among… Continue reading

Feriante to perform at Studio Bob

Andre Feriante will perform at 7 p.m. Saturday. Feriante,… Continue reading

RainShadow Chorale singers Linda Bach, Lisa Hoffman and Jane Hutcheson, all of Port Townsend, rehearse for “All Night VIgil.” (Karl Perry/RainShadow Chorale)
RainShadow Chorale to perform this weekend

RainShadow Chorale will perform Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “All Night Vigil”… Continue reading

Violinist Franziska Pietsch of Cologne, Germany, will join the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra this Saturday.
German violinist to join Port Angeles Symphony for two events

The soloist who will join the Port Angeles Symphony… Continue reading

Ghostlight Productions to stage ‘Sweeney Todd’ in Sequim

Ghostlight Productions will present “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of… Continue reading

Functional Art of Quimper show set this weekend

The inaugural Functional Art of Quimper show will be… Continue reading