Opening: Donald & Era Farnsworth at Red Barn Gallery

Bob Yogura is moved by 3-D prints by Donald and Era Farnsworth
Donald and Era Farnsworth's Specimens & Glass Houses recently opened at the Red Barn Gallery at the Pt. Reyes National Seashore Visitors Center in Pt. Reyes, California.

The glass houses of the exhibition's title refer to diatoms, single-cell organisms found in nearly every body of water on Earth that build delicate shells for themselves out of silica. Diatoms are major sources of oxygen in our atmosphere and are estimated to be responsible for 25% of the carbon fixation (conversion of carbon dioxide to organic compounds) in the ocean.

William Wiley with Donald and Era Farnsworth
By enlarging these microscopic life forms and rendering them using an eye-catching, stereoscopic 3-D process, the Farnsworths invite us to consider both the beauty and the ecological importance of these otherwise invisible creatures.

Mildred Howard, Margo Hackett, Bob Yogura and others enjoy the Farnsworth's 3-D prints
Specimens & Glass Houses runs from January 25 through April 1, 2013. Please visit the Pt. Reyes National Seashore website for visiting information.

William Wiley, Donald Farnsworth, and Hung Liu

Mary Webster with 3-D prints by the Farnsworths

Mary Webster, Barbi Anne Reed, William Wiley, Donald & Era Farnsworth (photo by Dallas Saunders)

Donald Farnsworth and Kevin Rowell with the irresistible Hung Liu (photo by Dallas Saunders)
More art by Donald & Era Farnsworth at Magnolia Editions

New Farnsworth Specimens catalog

To correspond with Donald Farnsworth's upcoming show at the Nevada Museum of Art, Magnolia Editions has re-designed and published a new and improved catalog of his Origin: Specimens series.

Handsomely printed by Solstice Press, the 74 pp. book includes images of the entire Origin series and essays by Farnsworth and Nick Stone.

spread from the Origin: Specimens catalog
Each print in Farnsworth's Origin: Specimens series combines a chapter from Charles Darwin's seminal On the Origin of Species with a digitally imaged, hyper-realistic rendering of an animal, bird, or insect specimen.

The artist notes in his introduction that his intent is to address the viewer's natural curiosity and intelligence, rather than trying to 'sell' any particular idea:

Regardless of our religious beliefs, we all inhabit a world where most of the images we encounter on a daily basis are designed by corporations to sell us something. The art world is not immune to the rise of the corporate state: even in the day-to-day operation of Magnolia Editions, I and my staff interact with corporations operating within a value system which assumes an audience of myopic, conformist viewers. Ultimately, my goal with this series is to create images divorced from this commercial context, which instead emphasize observation, literacy, and aesthetics.

spread from the Origin: Specimens catalog, showing a detail from one of Farnsworth's prints
Please contact Magnolia Editions or the Nevada Museum of Art for pricing and availability.

The Origin: Specimens series will be exhibited from April 30 - August 28, 2011 in the Nevada Museum of Art's Feature Gallery North.

See the Origin: Specimens series and more work by Donald Farnsworth at Magnolia Editions