SUNY-ESF’s first artist-in-residence presented her work to the community last week in a display that aimed to connect nature and philosophy.

Frances Gaffney spent the summer as the artist-in-residence at the Adirondack Interpretive Center, which is run by the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Gaffney presented her work to the SUNY-ESF community in Moon Library from Oct. 8–12 in an exhibit titled, “Feeling is the Prayer.” Gaffney became the college’s first artist-in-residence when she was asked to demonstrate plein air painting or painting while outdoors at the AIC in 2013 for Rockwell Kent Day.

Through her readings of physics-based works by Albert Einstein and some of his contemporaries, Gaffney began to see a common thread in the writings of contemporary physicists and ancient philosophers.

“What these people were writing about was their burgeoning understanding of intention works,” Gaffney said, “how what we believe, we perceive.”

Gaffney said the ties between philosophy and physics were the inspiration behind her artistic work over the summer.

The coordinator of the AIC, Paul Hai, mentioned to Gaffney that they had an outdoor space that was underutilized and asked if she would be interested in the space. Gaffney moved into the studio in April and worked there through the end of September.

“I had a nice long stay in the classroom,” Gaffney said. A blog was set up to allow Gaffney to write about the paintings and her experience. She also conducted workshops and every Sunday she was available on the trail outside the AIC to demonstrate plein air painting.

Gaffney used imagery from the AIC and the Adirondacks in her paintings, however her goals for the pieces were much broader than just painting the scenery.

“The paintings are inspired by nature — the beauty of the surroundings of the visitors center,” she said. “But to me, it wasn’t enough to just do a pretty picture. I wanted to use it as a backdrop to tell a bigger story and so I layered the metaphysical things on top of the plein air painting.”

In order to explore this connection, Gaffney said she focused her paintings on concepts of meditation — center, balance, expansion and extension — with the goal of getting into these states of being in order to see if her intentions were more focused and clear at the end.

Karen Moore, the special projects coordinator at the office of communications for SUNY-ESF, said that one of the goals of the artist-in-residence program is to connect the campuses and allow students from both SUNY-ESF and Syracuse University to view and experience Gaffney’s work. Moore added that SUNY-ESF’s reaction on the whole has been very positive.

“Granted, we’re a science based college,” she said, “but there are a lot of people interested in the arts or who pursue arts along with their studies so having something right on campus that they can go to see is a real benefit.”

Gaffney said she also believes that there is something to be gained by the merging of science and art — something that was a focus of her pieces.

“I think that artists say things differently than scientists do,” said Gaffney. “My thinking and my research is not data-heavy, it’s different. If I make mistakes, nobody gets hurt, nothing blows up — I can be wrong. I may be wrong, but it may help you see things differently. And I think that’s what artists do — they approach it from a different viewpoint.”

Although the exhibit ended this past weekend, Gaffney said that the pieces are not done. Her experience at the AIC allowed her to delve into a field she was very interested in but there are more concepts that she wants to continue with the series, she said. Gaffney said she’s just scratched the surface of what she’d like to study and paint about.

Published on October 14, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Anjali: acalwis@syr.edu