The second exhibit in the Art & Environment Gallery is "Drawing on Nature," featuring work by Joe Trumpey, a U-M professor. He is an associate professor of art at the School of Art & Design and an associate professor of Natural Resources at SNRE. He also serves as director of international engagement for Art & Design. Trumpey earned his A.B. in art and biology from Wabash College and his M.F.A. in medical and biological illustration from the University of Michigan. (See samples of Trumpey's work)

The exhibit begins with an artist talk and public reception Tuesday, April 17, at 4 p.m., in the Ford Commons in the Dana Building. The public is invited.

Before joining Michigan’s faculty in 1994, he was chief medical illustrator and director of graphic arts for the College of Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. While at U-M, he founded and currently directs Michigan Science Art, one of the largest groups of science illustrators working together in North America. Its most notable achievement is the completion of approximately 5,000 illustrations for the award-winning, 17-volume Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia. As a freelance design consultant and illustrator, Trumpey has worked with numerous zoos, museums and publishers across the country.

Artist statement by Joe Trumpey:

The animal illustrations seen here are examples of the hundreds I have completed in recent years for publication and didactic exhibits. They are a collaboration with researchers and I always enjoy the challenges of learning new details about various species. Forging new relationships with people who share a passion for the beauty and fascination they have with nature is often the best aspect of the collaborations. The vast majority of the animal illustrations seen here are for the Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia.

The second body of work is from a series titled "Myrmecologcial Literacy." The work is presented in the format of a Herbarium Study Sheet. The letterforms are leaves cut by leaf cutter ants at the Cincinnati Zoo.

Leaf Cutter Ants (Atta spp.) are one of the few species that are true farmers. These animals defoliate plants around their colonies by cutting small pieces of leaves and carrying the pieces back to their colony. The harvested leaves are not eaten, but rather are shredded and used as a nutrient substrate upon which they cultivate fungus. This particular species of fungus is found only in Leaf Cutter Ant colonies. It is this farmed fungus that is eaten by the members of the colony.

Leaf Cutter Ants are powerful metaphors for human society. These animals organize themselves into large colonies (cities) made up of millions of related individuals (society) and make their living as farmers (deforesters). Despite the growing American disconnect from the natural world, we are still an agrarian society. Technology assists us in our own food production, but ultimately it is the farms that convert photons into calories.

Millions of ants all obsessed with living—working, growing food, feeding each other, reproducing, caring for their young, warring and ultimately dying—not so different from us.