‘Greenland Ice Sheet Imagined’ is a new art exhibition at Husson University’s Robert E. White Gallery
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Exhibit features stark landscapes inspired by scientific papers and photos devoted to global warming
BANGOR – Husson’s spring 2022 visiting artist, Alison C. Dibble, will be speaking at a community artist reception on Wednesday, March 23 from 2-3 p.m. at the Robert E. White Gallery, adjacent to the University’s Campus Center in Peabody Hall. Peabody Hall is located at 54 College Circle in Bangor. The event is free and open to the public.
“The paintings in this exhibition show a vast, forbidding place, where the rate of melting has reached new records due to global warming,” said Dibble. “These mind’s-eye representations of the Greenland Ice Sheet captured on canvas are designed to move the viewer emotionally and cause people to care more about a faraway place. My focus is on strong design. My goal for this series was to create art that suggests a landscape that is immense, terrifying, and too beautiful to look away.”
The Greenland Ice Sheet is an enormous ice mass, up to almost two miles thick and 1,500 miles wide. Dibble paints her stirring landscapes from her imagination after studying scientific articles and photos taken by others that examine the ways global warming is affecting this fragile, disappearing environment.
“I have spent extensive time in Greenland and have seen the impact of climate change on the country’s ice sheet first-hand,” said Dr. Robert Northington, an assistant professor in Husson University’s College of Science and Humanities. Northington teaches courses in biology, ecology, and environmental science. “This art exhibition is a timely reminder that we need to do more to appreciate and protect Earth’s magnificent natural vistas, like those envisioned in these paintings, before they disappear forever.”
In addition to exhibiting, Dibble will be working with students in Husson University fine arts classes as a visiting artist. She will be helping them explore their creativity and artistic talents. Students will learn how to convey ideas and express their emotions through art. Offering students the opportunity to create and appreciate cultural expressions is another way Husson University is working to provide students with experiences that will help them develop into well-rounded, informed citizens. Art classes also help students develop creative thinking and problem solving skills – traits highly valued by employers.
For those who cannot attend the artist reception, Dibble will be sharing her artistic perspectives as part of an art talk on Zoom on Monday, March 21 from 5:30–6 p.m. Members of the public are welcome to join this Zoom presentation at that time through this link:
https://husson.zoom.us/j/99200474218. The meeting passcode is 910655.
Anyone who cannot attend the opening reception or Zoom talk is welcome to visit the show over the course of the next several months. The exhibition runs until May 13, 2022. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for viewing and reflection.
More about the artist:
Dr. Alison C. Dibble, of Brooklin has always loved to draw. She began her art training as a young child at home, where her mother, Barbara Smith Coan (Art Students League, N.Y.), taught her to draw and paint. Her mother was known especially for landscapes and seascapes, some of which won international awards.
As a teenager, Dibble attended the summer program at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School. She was accepted as a full-time student but elected to pursue a Bachelor of Arts in English literature with art minor at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York After starting a family, she earned a Master of Science in botany and a doctorate in plant science at the University of Maine. She sketched in watercolors in odd moments while she enjoyed a 30-year career as a conservation biologist.
Her botanical illustrations are in peer reviewed scientific journals such as RHODORA (the journal of the New England Botanical Club), and the Northeastern Naturalist. She illustrated an introductory chapter in The Macrolichens of New England by James and Patricia Hinds. The book was published by the New York Botanical Garden in Bronx, N.Y. in 2008. David Little’s book on painters of Katahdin (Downeast, 2013) includes a Dibble painting of a rare lichen in North Basin in Baxter State Park, Maine. She is an avid shutterbug, and her photos are included in Plants of Baxter State Park, published by the University of Maine. She’s one of several authors who contributed to this book.
Her conservation work took Dibble to many remote parts of Maine. After retiring from her pursuit of scientific data, she found that her passion for the wilderness continued unabated. Today, Dibble continues to be inspired by nature in her designs and selection of subject matter.
Dibble began expressing herself in oil paints in 2008, under the guidance of Louise Bourne of Penobscot. Other Maine artists from whom she received instruction, and who continue to inspire her include: Linda Funk (Rockland), Frank Sullivan (Littleton), Tom Curry (Brooklin), Marsha Donahue (Belfast), Olena Babak (Hartland), and Donald Demers (Boothbay).
Paintings have piled up around her house. Since 2008, she mounted eight solo exhibitions each with up to 30 recent paintings that reflect her colorful vision and her plein air oil sketches.
Her paintings have appeared in group shows at the Randy Higbee Gallery in Costa Mesa, Calif.; the Courthouse Gallery in Ellsworth; the Leighton Gallery in Blue Hill (now the Cynthia Winings Gallery); the New York Institute of Technology in Manhattan, the North Light Gallery in Millinocket, and many others.
More about the Robert E. White Gallery at Husson University
Artists with connections to New England who work in a variety of mediums including drawing, painting, sculpture, mixed media, printmaking, traditional craft and photography are featured at the Robert E. White Gallery.
With a new show each semester, the gallery provides students with a glimpse into how New England artists express themselves, giving them added insight into the place where they’ve chosen to go to school. The gallery was established in 1992 and named for, and endowed by, Husson alumni and former Board of Trustees Chair Robert E. White ’65.
For additional information, contact the gallery coordinator Kathi Smith by phone 207-941-7004 or by email at [email protected].
For more than 120 years, Husson University has shown its adaptability and strength in delivering educational programs that prepare future leaders to handle the challenges of tomorrow through innovative undergraduate and graduate degrees. With a commitment to delivering affordable classroom, online and experiential learning opportunities, Husson University has come to represent a superior value in higher education. The hallmarks of a Husson education include advanced knowledge delivered through quality educational programs in business; health and education; pharmacy studies; science and humanities; as well as communication. According to an analysis of tuition and fees by U.S. News & World Report, Husson University is one of the most affordable private colleges in New England. For more information about educational opportunities that can lead to personal and professional success, visit Husson.edu.
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