Nature Isn’t What It Used To Be

855 " T here are also cocks, which are extraordinary size, and have their crests not red as elsewhere, or at least in our country, but have the fl ower-like coronals of which the crest is formed variously colored, " wrote traveler and geographer Megasthenes 17 hundred years ago. " Their rump feathers are neither curved nor wreathed but are of great breadth and they trail them in the way peacocks trail their tails, when they neither straighten nor erect them: the feathers of these Indian cocks are in color golden and also dark-blue like the smaragdus. " These impressive cocks, and other fantastic creatures, populated Ta Indica, the author's account of India. Megasthenes' fl amboyant beasts, some of them sporting nonstandard digits and extra heads, may have come from the stories of people he met in his travels and not his own observations. Nonetheless, they could be describing the creatures of Alexis Rockman, artist, naturalist , author, educator, activist. " I try to use all of the ways we depict nature and natural history as content, " Rockman says, explaining the natural sciences bias of his subjects. " I'm interested in credibility. " His love for science and art fl ourished during childhood in his native New York. " I grew up in the American Museum of Natural History. My mother was an assistant to Margaret Meade … it shaped my perspective. ... Charles R. Knight and Chesley Bonestell were my heroes. " His education at the School of Visual Arts complemented long studies of nature in the United States and abroad. " I started out thinking that I would be a scientist. Eventually, over the years, I ended up becoming interested in other types of practices, like certain genres of fi lmmaking, animation. I think what I ended up doing was really a combination of all those different interests. I've always been interested in the history of the representation of nature. " Rockman's style, now realistic now abstract, has eluded traditional descriptions, " I try to make it as credible as possible without making it boring. " Some have seen sur-realism in his unusual depictions of plants, animals, and humans, " What I am after … is the disturbing part or the transformative part. " Embracing popular culture, he fl aunts it with great precision in a manner called hyperrealism in the tradition of Grant Wood, who captured …