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Bernd Heinrich: The Naturalist as Artist
"Art, writing and science have much in common" is the focus of the art exhibit on Bernd Heinrich currently at the L.C. Bates Museum in Hinckley. A field biologist, Professor Emeritus of Biology at the University of Vermont, and author of 12 books and numerous scholarly articles, Heinrich also is a graduate of Good Will-Hinckley School, 1959, and has been a resident of central Maine during various periods of his life. The exhibition documents his distinguished career through a selection of pencil sketches, watercolors and photographs. Bernd Heinrich was born in 1940 in Bad Polsin, Poland/Germany and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1958. His earliest images are of the Hahnheide forest in northern Germany where his family lived as semi-hunter gatherers for five years, until coming to Maine in April 1951. Due to his parents' work and travel, he was a resident and student at Good Will from 1952 to 1959, of which he describes: "I was not the most brilliant student in the classroom, and at study hour at our cottage I used to "sneak" drawing pictures of birds rather than studying math. In mind and body I escaped to the woods to find wonders. One was caterpillars. I was afraid to let my matron and the other students see them for fear they would destroy them or make fun of me, so I kept them in secret. I had them in a screen cage in the cellar of the then closed L.C. Bates Museum. (I got in through a broken window on the ground floor.) I was especially fond of sphinx moth caterpillars, some of whom I found on the tomato plants, when we were weeding the gardens along the Kennebec River. I over-wintered the pupae in the museum and in the next summer got moths, who reminded me of hummingbirds."
After graduating from Good Will High School, Heinrich received a B.A. in Zoology from the University of Maine, Orono in 1964, a M.S. in Zoology from UMO in 1966, and a PhD. in Zoology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1970. He earned his PhD. on discoveries he had made working with the sphinx moth, the same species as that of Good Will weeding days, which led him on to many other discoveries in bees, beetles, dragonflies, caterpillars, and ultimately ravens. These studies got him in touch with writing and drawing to illustrate the writing. His books include Bumblebee Economics, One Man's Owl, Ravens In Winter, The Hot-blooded Insects, The Mind of the Raven, and most recently The Geese of Beaver Bog. For a complete perspective of the writings and drawings of Bernd Heinrich and for an excellent comprehensive catalog, visit the L.C. Bates Museum. Special programs connected with the Bernd Heinrich exhibit include a talk by the artist and by William Lipke, the Exhibition Curator, Reception and Book Signing on Saturday, July 9, at 7:00 p.m. On Wednesdays, Children's Naturalist Programs will be held at the museum at 1:00 p.m. as follows: July 6, 13, 27 and August 3, 10, 17.
The L.C. Bates Museum at Good Will-Hinckley Homes for Boys and Girls is open Wednesday theough Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Sunday from 1:00 to 4:30 p.m. The museum is located on Route 201 halfway between Waterville and Skowhegan. For more information call 238-4250 or visit the museum's web site.. | |||
